Tag: Hollande

Turkey sees France’s Hollande lifting EU veto

Turkey sees France’s Hollande lifting EU veto

By Ayla Jean Yackley and Ceyda Caglayan

ISTANBUL | Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:20pm EDT

(Reuters) – Turkey expects France to unblock talks that are essential if it is ever to join the European Union, now that Socialist President Francois Hollande has replaced Nicolas Sarkozy who was outspoken in opposing the Muslim country’s bid to join the bloc.

“We are entering a new period in relations with France after Hollande’s election,” EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis said in an interview late on Tuesday. “It now makes sense for the block that stemmed from Sarkozy’s own personal whim to be lifted.”

Hollande has backed away from Sarkozy’s stark opposition to Turkey entering the EU but any shift in position from Paris will have more symbolic resonance than practical effect.

Turkey began talks in 2005 but has only completed one of the 35 policy “chapters” that every candidate must conclude to join the EU. Bagis expects Paris to lift its veto on talks about five chapters, but even that would leave other areas stalled.

All but 13 chapters are blocked by France, Cyprus – the island state which Turkey does not recognize – and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm which says Turkey does not yet meet the required standards on human rights and freedom of speech and religion.

Ankara said last week it would restore all ties with France after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan met Hollande, smoothing over a row about the World War One killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Last year Turkey cancelled economic, political and military meetings with Paris after the French parliament voted to make it illegal to deny that the massacres were genocide. The law was struck down by a top court.

While Hollande has stopped short of endorsing Turkey’s EU candidacy, he has said it should be judged on political and economic criteria – a contrast to Sarkozy’s position that Turkey did not form part of Europe.

But public opinion in France makes it difficult for politicians to explicitly back the candidacy. A survey by pollster IFOP in 2008 found 80 percent of the French were opposed to Turkey joining, the highest among the seven EU countries questioned.

France’s foreign ministry was not available for comment, but a French diplomatic source said that while the lifting of the Turkish sanctions “transforms our bilateral relations”, no decision had yet been made on the accession talks.

“I think Bagis is going a little bit far. What we will do is to study at European level what is on the table with the Turks, the chapters etcetera, but at this stage we haven’t defined a position,” the source said.

Despite the slow progress, Turkey still expects to join the EU before 2023, the centenary of its founding as a secular republic, Bagis said, adding that the euro zone’s economic crisis was no deterrent.

“This economic crisis will soon be over, and the EU will continue to be the grandest peace project in the history of mankind,” he said. “As a Muslim, secular democracy … what Turkey can do is turn this continental peace project into a global one.”

CYPRUS HEADS EU

Turkey’s position on Cyprus means that it will decline to open any new talks for the next six months during which Cyprus holds the rotating EU presidency.

Cyprus has been divided between ethnic Greeks and Turks since 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a short-lived coup by Greek Cypriots aimed at uniting the island with Greece. The Greek Cypriot-run state joined the EU in 2004.

Erdogan said last year Turkey would freeze ties with the EU when Cyprus assumes the presidency on July 1, something European Parliament President Martin Schulz called “impossible”.

Bagis said the presidency was largely symbolic and Turkey would continue working on membership criteria with the European Commission.

“We will not be forced into recognizing a country we have not recognized so far just because others call it the president,” Bagis said.

“No chapter will open during this time, because we have declared we will not engage with the president, but we expect several chapters to open in the subsequent period when Ireland takes over the presidency,” he said.

As for talks between Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, which sources says are deadlocked, Bagis said Turkey and its Turkish Cypriot partners would not allow Greek Cypriots to return to the deserted district of Varosha until a full settlement is reached.

That rebuffs an offer from Christofias to open policy chapters it has blocked in exchange for Varosha, Cyprus’ main tourism hub until Turkish forces seized it after the invasion.

“Varosha is part of a comprehensive settlement,” Bagis said. “We will not play our trump card to open a chapter. We’re not going to grow any taller with the opening of a new chapter.”

Turkey refuses to open its sea and air ports to Cyprus, required by the EU for its negotiations to progress, until the EU allows direct trade with Turkish Cypriots, diplomatically isolated and economically dependent on Turkey, despite voting in a 2004 referendum to join the EU and reunify with Greek Cypriots, who rejected the U.N. plan. (Additional reporting by Daniel Flynn and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

via Turkey sees France’s Hollande lifting EU veto | Reuters.

June 28, 2012
Turkey makes peace with France in wait-and-see game

PanARMENIAN.Net – Turkey has agreed to restore all ties with France, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said following a breakdown in relations last year prompted by a dispute over a bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial in France.

As he noted, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had ordered the sanctions imposed after France’s lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a draft law be lifted after a positive meeting with France’s new President Francois Hollande at a world summit in Brazil.

“The prime minister gave the necessary instructions after meeting with Hollande. Because of this new attitude from France, these sanctions will be dropped,” Davutoglu said.

Davutoglu said he would travel to Paris on July 5 for bilateral meetings where they would discuss taking additional “positive steps” in the future.

Here’s a little glimpse of past events: on January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide.

The bill envisaged imposing a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey reacted furiously when the Senate approved the law. Ankara halted political and military cooperation with France and was threatening to cut off economic and cultural ties if the law took effect.

Later, the French Constitutional Council ruled that a bill adopted by the French Senate making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide was unconstitutional.

In a statement the Council said the bill adopted by parliament on January 23 represented an “unconstitutional breach of the practice of freedom of expression and communication.”

Immediately after French Constitutional Council ruling, then President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged, if re-elected, to submit a new text of Genocide bill in June.

However, this time, he failed to persuade the Armenian community, as a similar scenario was played out during his first election race, yet failed to yield results.

Further, the presidential hopeful and current French leader Francois Hollande reiterated his pledge to adopt a bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in case he comes to power. Well, things are still where they started.

One could only make a guess about additional “positive steps” between France and Turkey. Perhaps France persuaded Turkey that the issue of the draft bill will be frozen till next elections. Or, may be, Turkey hopes to have intimidated France with sanctions, and France decided against messing with it.

The only thing left is to wait and see if Hollande will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Sarkozy, making hollow promises, or will actually fulfill his pledge, just recalling the fact that it does not behove to a superpower like France to keep fooling its citizens.

Marina Ananikyan / PanARMENIAN News

via Genocide: Turkey makes peace with France in wait-and-see game – PanARMENIAN.Net.

June 22, 2012
With Sarkozy gone, Turkey shows renewed interest in EU membership bid

By Associated Press, Published: May 16

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey is showing renewed interest in reviving its stalled bid to join the European Union, now that one of its key opponents is no longer the president of France.

Turkey began its EU accession negotiations in 2005 but made little progress in its candidacy, thanks to a dispute with EU-member Cyprus and opposition from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Turkey’s membership. Sarkozy argued that the predominantly Muslim country is not a part of Europe and wanted Turkey to accept some kind of a special partnership with the EU instead of full membership — an offer Turkey rejected.

Now that Socialist Francois Hollande has replaced the conservative Sarkozy as France’s president, Turkey hopes he will be more sympathetic to the candidacy of a country that has one of the world’s fastest growing economies and is becoming a regional diplomatic player.

“With the coming to power of Mr. Francois Hollande, we are all hoping that a new course in the Turkish-EU relations will gain momentum,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said this week, during a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

Little is known about Hollande’s stand regarding Turkey’s EU membership, apart from a comment he made on France-2 television on April 12 during his campaign for the presidency. During it, he said France has long accepted the principle of Turkish accession to the EU but that major conditions have not been met and that may not happen for several years to come.

On Thursday, Turkey and the EU are to open talks aimed at bringing Turkey’s membership bid back on track, and the Turkish government announced this week that its Parliament will soon vote on a series of draft laws designed to help advance its bid.

The EU Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fuele is scheduled will visit Ankara, the capital, to announce the start of those informal technical discussions with Turkey on eight policy areas. The goal is to bring Turkey closer to joining the 27-member bloc when some member states’ objections to Turkey’s accession are lifted.

Fuele’s office said Wednesday the new discussions also will aim to bring Turkish legislation closer to that of the EU, and to forge closer cooperation with Turkey in foreign affairs, including issues such as the uprising in Syria.

In a sign that Turkey is happy to resurrect the talks, its government this week sent a set of draft bills geared toward the EU bid to Parliament, including measures to improve human rights in the country.

When negotiations began seven years ago, Turkey was seen as a country whose dynamic population would enrich the EU culturally and economically, and would serve as a bridge to the Muslim world. But economic troubles in Europe and a lack of enthusiasm for the EU to expand further resulted in mounting opposition to Turkey’s bid. Frustrated, Turkey slowed down reforms and concentrated efforts toward carving out a leadership role in the Middle East.

Only one out of some three-dozen policy areas, or chapters, in EU membership negotiations has been concluded so far. Eight policy issues have been frozen by the bloc over Turkey’s refusal to allow ships and planes from the divided island of Cyprus to enter its ports and airspace. France has held up Turkey’s membership negotiations in five policy areas.

“Turkey is changing, the EU is changing and the new Europe cannot be without Turkey,” Egemen Bagis, the Turkish minister in charge of EU affairs said this week. “Until now, all countries that have started negotiations with the EU have become full members. Turkey will not be the first exception.”

Turkish President Abdullah Gul is expected to hold talks with Hollande during a NATO summit in Chicago next week, Turkish officials said.

via With Sarkozy gone, Turkey shows renewed interest in EU membership bid – The Washington Post.

May 17, 2012
End France’s Block on Turkey’s EU Bid, President Hollande

As Francois Hollande drives through Paris to his inauguration today, he should add an item to his daunting list of priorities as president of France: End his country’s block on Turkey’s talks to join the European Union, and do it soon.

Photograph by Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg

That may seem eccentric in light of everything Hollande already faces, what with the euro area’s economic meltdown. But it isn’t. The European project as a whole is faltering under the political strain of the crisis. EU leaders need to show direction and create momentum for the bloc, in areas where they can reaffirm its purpose and values, even as the economy sputters.

Turkey’s a good place to start. Unblocking its membership process would end the widespread impression that the EU discriminates against Muslims, at a time when xenophobia, anti- immigrant feelings and isolationism are rising within the mainly Christian nations of Europe. Allowing talks to continue is a very different issue from Turkey, population 73 million, actually joining the EU. That remains a distant prospect.

In 2004, the EU agreed to give Turkey the chance to join the bloc, if it could show it had adopted the required 100,000- plus pages of EU legislation and other conditions of membership. Since then, 19 of the 35 negotiating chapters that are involved in this process have been blocked. Turkey is the only country in the EU’s history to have its membership bid frozen in this way.

Unilateral Stop

There are several causes for this, including a dispute over Cyprus, an EU member that Turkey doesn’t recognize. In 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy unilaterally blocked five chapters that relate to Turkey’s ultimate membership, and so long as that decision remains, Turkey has little cause to compromise on Cyprus. Sarkozy made his reasoning clear: namely, that Turkey wasn’t part of Europe geographically and doesn’t belong in it.

Removing the French veto would inject new life not only into the European project, but also into its economic fortunes. Turkey grew by 8.5 percent last year, and has a population with a median age of about 28, compared with 45 in Germany. Slow growing and demographically challenged as it is, the EU needs the fresh blood and energy that Turkey has to offer. The two economies are already closely tied. They have a customs union and trade heavily. More than $11 billion of the $16 billion of foreign direct investment made in Turkey last year came from the EU.

It could have been more. From nuclear plants to infrastructure, French companies have been told they needn’t bid for some government contracts in Turkey, so long as Sarkozy and his policy are in place. So French jobs are at stake, too.

Another reason that the EU shouldn’t slam shut its door to the east is geopolitical. Turkey today is very different from 20, or even two, years ago. It has the kind of reach and soft power in the Middle East that the ex-colonial powers of Europe, including France, now lack. It has more troops than France and the U.K. combined. And it has learned, after a few years of hubris, that its anchorage in Western alliances is critical to its influence and security elsewhere.

This is why Turkey last year agreed to host the radar shield for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s planned missile defense system, despite incurring the anger of Iran. It’s also why at NATO’s summit in Chicago this weekend, Turkey plans to push the membership bids of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro in the Balkans, and to go on supporting that of Georgia, in the Caucasus. Hollande will attend the summit as part of a baptism by fire, after visiting Germany.

Lure of Membership

Finally, Turkey itself needs the EU membership process. It’s highly uncertain that Turks would vote to join Europe if they were eventually to fulfill all the conditions. But the past few years have shown that without the active pull of the EU negotiations, Turkey’s development as a free democracy has stalled or even reversed in some areas, including free speech and the rule of law. A stable, democratic Turkey is very much in the interests of the EU.

Turkey would be an awkward EU member. It is a former empire, has feet planted in the Middle East as well as Europe, remains one of the worst performers at the European Court of Human Rights, and historically was seen in the Christian capitals of Europe as the enemy. Yet the EU was created after World War II to resolve this kind of enmity, a purpose increasingly overshadowed by the effort to create and sustain the euro. Besides, which of the EU’s larger nations are not awkward, not to mention Turkey’s neighbor and rival Greece?

Hollande’s victory was celebrated as much in Turkey as anywhere in Europe. Sarkozy’s policy panders to segments of French popular opinion, but it reversed one set by President Jacques Chirac, and it can be reversed again. As soon as Hollande has next month’s French parliamentary elections in his rearview mirror, he should do so. Then it will be up to Turkey – – not France — to decide just how badly it wants to make the kinds of transformations and sacrifices that are needed to join the EU.

via End France’s Block on Turkey’s EU Bid, President Hollande – Bloomberg.

May 16, 2012