Xinhua General News Service, China
May 7, 2012 Monday 2:40 PM EST
Turkey hopes to improve relations with France: PM
LJUBLJANA May 7
Turkey hopes to improve its relations with France when Francois
Hollande leads the new French government, visiting Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said here on Monday.
Speaking to reporters after talks with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez
Jansa, Erdogan voiced regret over poor Turkey-France relations during
the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, and expressed hope to build more
constructive relations between the two countries.
On Turkey-EU relations, Erdogan reiterated Turkey’s desire to join the
EU, and expressed hope to make headway in its bid for EU membership as
soon as possible.
Erdogan made the remarks after Hollande won presidential run-off on Sunday.
Turkey’s bid for EU membership has been at a bottleneck due to strong
objections from Germany and France.
Turkey and France have been in tense relations after the French Senate
adopted in January a bill which made it illegal to deny as “genocide”
the killing of over 1 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.
The Turkish government froze its political and military ties with
France after the bill had been passed by France’s lower house of the
parliament last December.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress