Associated Press Worldstream
December 12, 2004 Sunday 1:19 PM Eastern Time
French politicians oppose Turkey’s EU membership
PARIS
France’s centrist leader said in an interview published Sunday that
Turkey has shown repeatedly that it is not part of Europe, while a
right-wing politician urged voters to reject the European Union
constitution to keep Turkey out.
Turkey “does not belong to Europe, and shows that in multiple ways,”
said Francois Bayrou, head of the centrist Union for French
Democracy, in the Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
It “militarily occupies Cyprus, a European state, and refuses to
recognize it,” Bayrou told the weekly paper. “It (opposes) any
recognition of the Armenian genocide, maintains practices that hurt
the status of women.”
The remarks came days before European leaders are to decide whether
to open negotiations with Ankara.
Right-wing politician Philippe de Villiers told Radio J that a “no”
vote in France’s planned referendum on the European Constitution
would be useful in helping to prevent Turkey’s membership.
It would be a “vote of precaution for those who don’t want Turkey” in
the EU. If the EU constitution is defeated, he said, “that will level
everything.”
The French political class is deeply divided over the question of the
admission of poor, majority-Muslim Turkey to the EU, which currently
has 25 members.
EU leaders are to meet Thursday and Friday to decide on opening
membership talks with Ankara.
President Jacques Chirac supports Turkey’s EU membership, while Prime
Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a centrist, is skeptical and Chirac’s
party, the Union for a Popular Movement, is opposed.
Chirac has warned against politicians’ mixing the referendum and
Turkey’s membership.
“These are two problems that have nothing to do with each other,” he
said recently.
The referendum is to be held likely in the final six months of next
year.
Chirac has said that French citizens also will have the “final word”
on Turkey’s entrance through a referendum when the time comes – and
if EU leaders agree to start membership talks.