At the second day of its official visit in France, Tuesday July 20,
Turkish the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hoped to find in the
Elysium the support of Paris for the accession of Turkey for the
European Union. That was the case.
The French president, Jacques Chirac, “pointed out that the integration
of Turkey in the European Union was desirable as soon as it would be
possible”, brought back the Elysium at the end of a private
conversation between the two leaders followed by a lunch. The French
president stressed that “Turkey had made considerable progress, and
that it must continue and intensify the implementation of the
democratic and economic reforms”.
Not very front, in front of journalists, Mr. Erdogan had considered to
be “unthinkable” that Turkey and France are in political disagreement,
being given the strength of their historical and economic bonds.
“France constantly supported Turkey” since the Summit of Helsinki, in
1999, where Turkey obtained the statute of applicant country, it had
noted.
Mr. Chirac declared himself with many recoveries and without ambiguity
in favour of an adhesion whereas its own party, the UMP (Union for a
popular movement) there is opposite as well as most of the French
public opinion. At the time of the top of NATO in Istanbul on June 29,
Mr. Chirac had qualified this process of “irreversible”.
At the second day of his stay in Paris, Mr. Erdogan thus obtained a
support of weight in his countryside to promote the candidature of
Ankara in France very reticent and divided on this question.
Questioned on the private radio Europe 1, the Foreign Minister, Michel
Barnier, however estimated, Tuesday, that “the way was still long”
before adhesion but that this country was on the good way.
PRIVILEGED TRADE PARTNER
Mr. Erdogan, for its part, regretted the persistence of doubts,
reserves or debates on adhesion: “the fact that these debates continue
to exist in spite of the package of reforms which was achieved, that
saddens us”, has it says to the journalists.
The opposition of French left is, for its part, favorable to adhesion
but the socialist Party requires in precondition the recognition of the
Armenian génocide of 1915. The Armenian community of France (450
000 people) is most significant after that of the United States. It
invited to express in Paris so that Mr. Erdogan “engages his country in
the process of recognition of the Armenian génocide”.
In parallel, Paris and Ankara advanced another significant file, that
of the possible purchase of Airbus planes by the Turkish national
company Turkish Airlines for the renewal of its fleet. These
discussions “are in the course of finalization”, indicated the French
presidency at the end of Chirac-Erdogan maintenance. This contract had
been in particular discussed Monday evening by Mr. Erdogan with the
Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. The aeronautical consortium
European Airbus and American Boeing should in theory share this
contract of two billion dollars (1,6 billion euros).
Mr. Erdogan called the mediums of French businesses, which it met
Tuesday with the seat of Medef (French employers), to shoulder it and
invest in its country. France is the second trade partner of Turkey and
its fourth supplier.
Mr. Erdogan will be received Wednesday by the president of the French
National Assembly, Jean-Louis Debré, and will discuss with the
head the socialist Party, François Holland, like with the
president of the UDF (right center), François Bayrou.
Yorumlar kapatıldı.