Foreign Correspondence

[fuagf]

Turkey, France enter new era, says EU diplomat .. Tuesday, October 27, 2009
BARÇIN YİNANÇ .. ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News


AA photo

The strained relationship between Turkey and France has entered a new era, said a European official, adding that the government in Paris is softening its position toward Turkey’s European Union membership bid.

French officials will no longer use the concept “privileged partnership,” as an alternative to EU membership, and according to the new understanding reached between Ankara and Paris, bilateral relations will now begin a new dimension, the same official told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Monday.

With clear support from Germany, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has continuously objected to Turkey’s entry to the EU and instead offered an alternative framework to regulate Turkish-EU relations, called “privileged partnership.” Turkey has repeatedly rejected this motion, saying its goal is full EU membership.

“As the French saying goes, France has put water in the wine. In other words, it is softening its position,” said a well-informed official, who asked to remain anonymous. France will continue to block entry talks in five areas, said the official, adding: “France will no longer talk about privileged partnership. This concept will not be mentioned anymore.”

Turkey has to negotiate 25 chapters to enter the EU. France has blocked talks on five chapters using the argument that concluding negotiations on these five chapters will directly lead to membership.

Increased cooperation

The new understanding, which was reached after a series of official contacts between Ankara and Paris, was hammered out by Sarkozy and Turkish President Abdullah Gül during the latter’s visit to Paris in early October. According to the new understanding, cooperation on all fields will intensify.

“While there is no change in substance on French policy about Turkey’s EU bid, it seems there is a softening in the tone,” said retired Turkish diplomat Yalım Eralp. “What the French propose is to have increased cooperation in more fields and get the two countries closer. In turn, the EU issue with the five chapters being the exception will not be an issue of contention," Eralp told the Daily News. “Yet statements coming from the leaders from time to time can spoil this apparent mood of softening,” he said.

“Turkish-French relations should not be sabotaged by a divergence of view that is about something that will take place in five, 10 or 15 years from now,” said the European official. “The French and the Turks made the decision to work on all issues that bring them closer,” he added.

“What the French are trying to do is to seduce Turks by improving bilateral relations and convince Turkey that while reaping the benefits of bilateral ties, it should forget about membership. If this is the intention, the efforts will be in vain. Because there is no alternative to membership,” said retired Ambassador Özdem Sanberk, who was also the former undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry. “As far as the French are concerned, this might be the right strategy on their part. Yet if France thinks of implementing this strategy with the expectation that Turkey will one day give up its membership bid, the strategy will backfire. Turkey will never give up its membership objective. It will never replace it for better ties with France,” he said adding that the new understanding could turn out to be counterproductive. Furthermore, Sanberk said that deeds count more than words, and in this respect Turkey should continue to monitor France’s action on Turkey’s entry efforts.

The first test case might prove to be the Cyprus issue. The EU might decide to impose a sanction on Turkey with the argument that Turkish ports are not open to shipping from Greek Cyprus. Although the European Commission has not come with any advice on that direction, France’s position will be very important to change the view of the majority of member states, which believe no sanction should be imposed on Turkey.

“France believes that there should be consequences,” said the European official. Although it might not be militant on the issue, France might suggest a course of action that will be short of striking a strong blow to the accession process, but nevertheless send a signal to Turkey.

When asked whether France wants an end to the Turkish policy of keeping out French firms from important tenders in turn for avoiding the “two-p-words,” the European official said that the new will to cooperate goes beyond this simplistic perspective: “There is a real will to cooperate. France and Turkey have a lot in common. The two have the same vision on many issues. There is plenty of room to cooperate on regional issues, for instance,” he said.

READER COMMENTS

Guest - anti-Zionist Turk (2009-10-29 15:19:11) :

I really don't understand why we are trying to join the EU. We should create a Middle Eastern Union with Iran, Syria and Iraq instead.

Guest - anton supertramp (2009-10-29 12:33:47) :

@ david you didint answer my question. ıts clear that you either dont understand my point or just so much into your idea that you cant see others E.U is the biggest trade partner for turkey no one says the otherwise but like I said there is no point being a member of europe which seem to imposibble anyway.. we always gonna make business with europe lıke we should do it with in our region and espesially with asia its you say that we dont belong to europe am I right? we have been triying to be part of the membership almot 50 years what we got? we sould make block with russia china india japan and other counteries in the mean time do our deal with eurapeans and arabs wahts in this so bad? and asains are not so arrogant thats another pro for them... and as a former europe supporter if there is one thning I learned from european politicians its that if they says turkey is not in the right way that means we should keep goıng on that way ı dont ımply you you may be some of the wise european and support turkey in that way but I think we must make them come to us. enough's enough...

Guest - David (2009-10-29 09:42:01) :

@anton. That you have jumped to the conclusion that I hate anyone shows that your arguments are flawed as they will be filled with assumptions, not facts. The biggest trading bloc that Turkey deals with is the EU. The biggest trading partners countries in the EU deal with, are for the most part EU members. Africa will never be an economic power house, which is not a hate based opinion, but a simple observation. The Middle East and Eurasia can only rely on oil and gas to keep its economies strong, just look at those nations in the region with no mineral deposits. Asia will grow in strength, but geographically makes no sense as a bloc for Turkey to join. It's either the EU or nothing. Turkey needs to recognise this, and to recognise that the whole world is not out to destroy the country.....although this is unlikely as Turks tend to be irrationally paranoid about such things.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-france-enter-new-era-says-eu-diplomat-2009-10-27