TURKEY’S EU BID MAIN TOPIC OF KOUCHNER VISIT
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 5 2007
Turkey’s EU membership bid will be the main topic of French Foreign
Minister Bernard Kouchner’s visit to Turkey today.
Kouchner, will hold talks with Foreign Minister and Chief EU Negotiator
Ali Babacan and will be received by President Abdullah Gul and Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Bilateral political, economic and cultural relations, Turkey’s EU
membership bid, Cyprus, regional and international problems will be
discussed during the talks.
The French proposal regarding the establishment of a "Mediterranean
Union," –which envisages Turkey’s membership to it– and "the high
level group (HLG) of eminent persons" to be formed to shape the
boundaries of the EU and its future strategies, are expected to come
up during the talks.
Turkey is expected once again to reiterate its firm stance on full
membership (to the EU) and will affirm that it will never accept
the "privileged membership" status offered by France, diplomatic
sources said.
Turkey will also ask France not to submit to the Senate the draft
law criminalising the denial of the Armenian allegations regarding
the incidents of 1915 and will point out the harm done to relations
because of this issue in the past.
Bilateral economic relations and French investments in Turkey are
also expected to be discussed.