Category: France

Semi-pregnant!

OPINION

Yusuf KANLI

As Turkey’s European Union membership process continues on its long and winding uphill road with no clarity, after so many decades, whether inshallah it will be completed one day with a happy orthodox marriage or a mateessüf (unfortunate) firm rebuff with an indecent offer of becoming a “privileged partner,” or mistress, of Europe, some European bureaucrats and politicians were reported to be shocked to see a sharp drop in the interest in the Turkish media to the just-released annual progress report…

Turks are of course frustrated with the European Union membership process. When they first knocked on the door of Europe with a request for membership it was in the early 1960s. In 1963 Turkey and the forefather of today’s EU signed the so-called Ankara Agreement, which called for Turkey’s membership in the community once it completed its preparations and improved its economy and democracy to meet European standards. The 1963 accord had two dimensions, an economic one and a political one. The economic dimension of the Ankara Agreement was completed, with considerable delay, in 1995, and Turkey joined in the European customs union and became the first-ever country to engage in the customs union scheme without completing full EU accession.

Indeed, from the day Turkey engaged in the customs union deal it agreed to a transformation of its membership-targeted EU process into a “mistress affair” or privileged partnership as by entering into the customs union without getting the political bonus, or membership and the right to contribute to the shaping of European policies, Turkey liberally opened its entire market to EU industry and commerce. That is, from 1995 on Turkey-EU relations have been something like semi-pregnancy; Turkey is in the EU, has to abide with EU decisions and policies, but it is not an EU member and thus totally out of the policy-making process of the EU.

Yet, though he refuses even to commit himself to a marriage sometimes in the future and insists on saying, “Well, we have an affair, let’s live it liberally… Perhaps, who knows what the day will bring, we may marry one day, or just part ways,” the European arrogant “husband” keeps on asking “mistress Turkey” to conform with this or that decision of the European family, walk the extra mile and offer some additional compromises to please the spoiled Greek Cyprus kid, provide some improvements in the rights and liberties of the non-Muslim as well as Muslim minorities and even take such steps that might seriously endanger the national and territorial integrity of the country.

As if such oddities were not enough, every other day Turkey would be insulted with some ludicrous claims regarding Cyprus or find itself trying to understand some masterpieces of Turkish animosity pouring out of the mouths of an arrogant small French man or a blunt German lady who happen to be sitting in governmental seats in their countries. Yet, European “friends” of Turkey are astonished to see a marked decrease in the support in Turkey for the country’s EU membership bid.

Come on, Europe must try to understand why a person like President Abdullah Gül, who over the past many years repeatedly expressed full support to EU membership, has started to talk all of a sudden about the probability of Turks saying no in a referendum – if the process is ever completed and Turks go to a referendum to make the final decision on accession – on EU membership. What Gül said is indeed what many people, including this writer, have been stressing for the past many years: Turkey needs Europe and Europe needs Turkey. If Europe does not want Turkey in, Turkey definitely does not want to be with the EU either. Turkey is no parasite which might think membership in the EU is an existential issue for itself.

Since the 2005 start of the accession talks process negotiations have started in only 13 headings, provisionally closed only in one heading but unfortunately most of the remaining 22 chapters of the 35 overall chapter acquis communitaire have been held hostage by either France or the Greek Cypriot administration.

While issues of freedom of expression, press freedom, democratic representation and such fundamental democracy shortcomings are not given adequate prominence in Turkey-EU political dialogue, held hostage by some extraneous issues, it is indeed sad to see Europeans complaining about why Turks feel frustrated with the EU process.

Perhaps Europe must try to find an answer to why Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his typical arrogance, declared the other day that in the next 18 months or so Turkey might be compelled to make a final decision on its EU bid if Europe continues to ominously keep Turkey in a waiting room.

There cannot be a semi-pregnancy.

, November 10, 2010

November 12, 2010
Islamization of Paris

A hidden camera shows streets blocked by huge crowds of Muslim worshippers and enforced by a private security force. Although it is illegal in France: the public worship, the blocked streets, and the private security, the police have been ordered not to intervene.

October 28, 2010
Turkey and La France

Last week French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner visited Turkey. While Turkey and France have strong business links, on the political level relations are far from perfect — not least as a result of France’s position on Turkish membership of the EU. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made it very clear that he views Turkey as a non-European state, incompatible with EU values. Sarkozy continues to say that a privileged partnership would be the best option for relations with Ankara. Nevertheless, France needs and wants to have strong ties with Turkey and this visit was clearly meant to boost them.

Turkey’s EU process is dying and while Turkey has its fair share of the blame to shoulder, there is no doubt that the current French position is also to blame. Furthermore, the French act as if they can totally separate Paris’s position on Turkey’s accession from the rest of political relations. For example, France still looks for strong support from Turkey for French diplomatic initiatives outside Europe, including in the Mediterranean.

Kouchner did his best not to talk about French opposition to Turkey’s EU bid, sidestepping any questions that were thrown at him on this topic. He simply said that France’s position was well known. Rather paradoxically, given France’s opposition, he preferred to talk about what Turkey should be doing to make progress in the membership negotiations. He underlined that the ball is in Turkey’s court, adding that Ankara needs to introduce more reforms to advance its lagging negotiations.

During a press conference, Kouchner told Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that Turkey could open talks on three new chapters — the remaining 18 are blocked, mostly due to the impasse over Cyprus as Turkey continues to refuse to open its ports and airports to the republic of Cyprus due to the EU’s failure to deliver on commitments made to Turkish Cypriots. Only when there is a change will Turkey do what it is actually legally obliged to do.

He claimed the chapter on competition could be opened before the end of the year and the one on social policy and employment could be prepared for the Hungarian presidency, which will cover the first six months of 2011. That would leave the last one — public procurement — for the Polish or Danish presidencies. Of course that all implies that Turkey will meet the tough benchmarks or that no other country will block them. It is not totally impossible that Cyprus may decide to block further.

As a Greek Cypriot friend of mine told me, Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias is coming under increasing pressure to do this. Greek Cypriots are fed up with seeing Turkey’s negotiations proceeding (albeit at a snail’s pace) and Turkey continuing to fail to implement the Ankara Protocol. While clearly this would not be welcomed by many other member states — another dispute with Turkey would be highly undesirable — it should not be totally excluded.

Furthermore, what happens after these remaining chapters are opened is the million-dollar question. Not only will there be no more chapters, but the EU’s rotation will fall into the hands of the Greek Cypriots in June 2012. In the best-case scenario, the Cyprus problem will have been resolved by then, which would open the way to re-energizing the whole process. However, it is more likely that it will not be and how Turkey will deal with the Cypriot presidency (a country that Turkey does not recognize) will be tricky, to say the least — if not impossible.

On the Turkish side, Davutoğlu continued to push France to liberalize visa regimes for Turks. Turkey continues to feel bitter that many of the countries of the Western Balkans (which are not even negotiating full membership) have already obtained a visa-free regime while Turkey, which has been negotiating for five years, still has a strict visa system to face. Free visa travel would improve people-to-people contacts as well as facilitate business relationships. But here again France is not likely to be overly keen, given the country’s “difficulties” with its current Muslim community. President Sarkozy’s recent actions towards the Roma suggest that Paris is unlikely to soften up on this any time soon.

Sarkozy is planning to visit Turkey in early 2011. Therefore, he still has time to work on a charm offensive and work out what this so-called “privileged partnership” would entail, given that for all intents and purposes Turkey already has a privileged partnership with the EU. What is clear is that Turkey is not going to say let us forget what you are doing to us in Europe, and will help you when you come knocking on our door unless, of course, Ankara has something meaningful to gain by doing so.

Amanda Paul
Zaman

October 17, 2010
France Tries to Strengthen Relations With Turkey

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner speaks to the media in Ankara, 12 Oct 2010

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is visiting Turkey as bilateral relations remain deeply strained over France’s opposition to Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

Relations between France and Turkey have have plummeted since Paris’s vetoed key policy negotiations Turkey needs to join the European Union.

Turkey started entry talks with the European Union five years ago, but negotiations on several policy areas are stalled or suspended because of Turkey’s refusal to open its ports to trade with EU member Cyprus. In addition, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has argued Turkey does not belong in Europe

But during a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says France is willing to help Turkey.

Kouchner says France is ready, as the Turkish foreign minister has asked for help. In this position there are three more policy areas that can be opened for negotiations to help Turkey to get closer to the EU.

The three policy areas Kouchner referred to are social policy, employment and competition. Turkey needs to complete negotiations in 35 policy areas to bring its institutions and legislation in line with those of the European Union. But 18 are blocked, mostly due to the impasse over Cyprus.

Kouchner sidestepped a question over France’s opposition to Turkey’s EU bid, saying only that France’s position is known. But he stressed the ball is in Turkey’s court, adding that Ankara needs to introduce more reforms.

Analysts say among those reforms is opening Turkish ports to Cyprus.

The Turkish government says it will only do so when an EU embargo against the Turkish Cypriots side of the island is lifted. Davutoglu politely dismissed Kouchner’s offer and reiterated Turkey’s frustration with France.

He says talks can cover a great distance in a very fast time if obstacles not in the accordance with the negotiation process are removed. He says when the vetoes are lifted Turkey can complete EU negotiations in two years.

Davutoglu also reiterated Turkey’s complaint the Greek Cypriots were admitted into the European Union after rejecting a U.N. peace deal to reunify the island, which Turkish Cypriots accepted in simultaneous referendums in 2004.

Despite the smiling faces at the news conference, political scientist Cengiz Aktar says Paris’s opposition to Turkey’s EU membership is killing its bid.

“The process is dying with this sort of negative statements, that everybody should understand this,” he said. “You know this is a total enmity against Turkey, and France pretends have good bilateral relations with Turkey. This is not true. France has less and less good official relations with Turkey, and that will remain so in the years to come.”

Analysts say that is bad news for Kouchner because a main reason for his visit is to seek Turkish support for French diplomatic initiatives outside Europe. Paris continues to press for the creation of a Mediterranean club of countries, in which it sees Turkey playing a lead role.

But Ankara remains distinctly cool, suspecting it as an alternative to its EU aspirations.

Political columnist Murat Yetkin says Paris cannot have it both ways

“So Turkey will not say that let us forget what you are doing to us in Europe, and we will help you our best in the rest of the world. I do not think that is the equation right now,” he said.

Analysts say it appears the French diplomat’s two-day visit will not bring any breakthrough in French-Turkish relations or any surprises.

October 13, 2010
The road to Tehran runs through Ankara

Posted By Geneive Abdo

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in recent days met with dignitaries at the United Nations to generate international support for Iran to engage in talks with the United States and other permanent members of the UN Security Council over Iran’s nuclear program. But when Mottaki and other Iranian officials in Tehran have talked recently about restarting talks, they are not referring to the nuclear negotiations the Europeans and the United States are hoping for; rather, they are trying to gain traction on negotiations about the Tehran Declaration, the agreement brokered between Iran, Brazil and Turkey in May, which is limited to a swap deal over a portion of Iran’s enriched uranium. This is the deal the United States, Britain, and France dismissed in May as a sideshow and a manipulative tactic by Iran to get out of tough sanctions, shortly before crippling sanctions were passed in the United Nations, the European Union, and the U.S. Congress. At the time, this action prompted a hostile reaction from Iran.

Now that Mottaki is placing the deal squarely on the table again, the Obama administration should seize the moment. Rather than purse talks over Iran’s broader nuclear program and risk failure — during a period when there appears to be little time to waste before either a military attack is launched against Iran or Iran develops the technology to produce a nuclear weapon — a wiser move would be to talk with Iran first over the Tehran Declaration as a way of building trust.

This is certainly the view of the Turks. A delegation of Turkish parliamentarians was in Washington last week for meetings with the Obama administration over Ankara’s relations with Iran, Israel and other issues. The delegation likely advised the United States to take Iran up on its offer to begin talks immediately over the Tehran Declaration. At least one other Turkish delegation visited Washington this past summer, delivering this same message. But their efforts produced little more than hostility from members of Congress and less than enthusiastic responses from officials in the administration.

In interviews I had in Turkey during a recent trip there, Turkish diplomats who spent months shuttling between Ankara and Tehran last spring to broker the Tehran Declaration told me that the United States should accept Iran’s offer to make the Tehran Declaration the framework of any negotiations with the five-plus-one because there is no support in Tehran now to negotiate over Iran’s broader nuclear program. This might be what the United States wants, but there is no backing for it among a cross-section of Iran’s political elites. “The inner circle around [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei views this Tehran agreement as a first step to establish good faith with Western governments,” said one Turkish official with first-hand knowledge of the talks with Iran.

Iran’s new campaign to revive the Tehran Declaration extends from New York to Tehran. On Sept. 28, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast reiterated Iran’s position: “We have repeatedly said that we are ready for talks with Vienna Group based on [the] Tehran Declaration and we are continuing consultation to specify details of the negotiation as well as its place and time.”

Turkish officials have stated repeatedly — both last week during their Washington visit and in the summer — that Turkey wants to facilitate the negotiations with Iran and the five-plus-one. Indeed, as the arbiter Turkey would likely ensure success. By now, Turkish negotiators understand the internal politics inside the Iranian regime far better than their European or American counterparts do. The many months Turkish foreign ministry officials shuttled between Tehran and Ankara were instructive: “It was a good lesson in how to build a consensus with different political actors,” one Turkish foreign ministry official told me who participated in the delegation.

The Turks believe that negotiations first over the fuel swap deal — even though it falls far short of the demands of the five-plus-one — will lead the inner circle around Khamenei and the supreme leader himself to compromise over other issues of concern to the West, such as Iran enriching uranium at 20 percent, which the Obama administration adamantly opposes because it could allow Iran to eventually produce a nuclear weapon.

The United States should listen to the Turks, simply because there are no other options to begin a dialogue with Iran. At this point, we do not need any more negotiations with Iran to understand that Western states cannot effectively talk to the Iranians alone. Talks between the five-plus-one with Iran, with Turkey as the arbiter, are a positive path out of the deadlock.

Geneive Abdo is the Director of the Iran program at The Century Foundation and creator of .

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October 6, 2010

October 7, 2010
Limbless Father swims across Channel

A Frenchman became the first limbless person to swim the Channel on Saturday night.

Philippe Croizon, 42, set off from Folkestone, Kent, at around 6am expecting to reach France within 24 hours but managed to complete the feat in just 13-and-a-half hours.

He was forced to have his arms and legs amputated after he suffered an electric shock while removing a television aerial from a roof 16 years ago.

He only taught himself to swim in the last two years and does so using prosthetic legs and a snorkel and mask.

Earlier his spokeswoman said he was swimming faster than expected after completing his first 12 miles in just eight hours.

After completing the 21-mile challenge, Mr Croizon told the BBC that at no point did he feel he was not going to make it, despite pains and aches all over his body.

His father said his son had been helped by favourable wind conditions and had even had three dolphins swimming alongside at one point, which was a “sign of good luck”.

The amputee trained for 35 hours a week for the past two years and his endeavour attracted letters of support from President Sarkozy and other politicians.

The Telegraph

September 21, 2010