“Turkey considers its bilateral relations with its friend and ally France as a whole, not solely connected to one issue. Turkey’s accession process to the EU is, without a doubt, one of the most important elements of these relations,” said a statement released by the Foreign Ministry over the weekend.
Last week, French Minister for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche was quoted as saying that his country and Turkey had recently reached an “implicit agreement” concerning bilateral disagreements surrounding Turkey’s EU membership process.
Briefing members of the French National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee, Lellouche said an implicit agreement had been reached during President Abdullah Gül’s meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris last month, noting that the agreement aimed at “easing” problems concerning Turkey’s EU membership process, the Anatolia news agency reported.
“Therefore, such a mutual understanding as cited in those news reports has not occurred and it is not possible for it to occur either,” the government’s statement, which came in the form of an answer by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Özügergin to a journalist’s question, said. “In addition to groundless news reports, the use of careful language by all related officials is extremely important concerning the course of affairs in Turkey-France relations,” Özügergin also noted.
Sarkozy believes that Turkey does not belong in Europe and proposes instead a privileged partnership that falls short of membership in the 27-nation EU, while the Turkish leadership categorically rejects any formula that does not include full membership in the European bloc.
Gül paid an official visit to Paris last month, where he and Sarkozy together opened an exhibition at Paris’ Grand Palais as part of the Season of Turkey in France. During their meeting last month, the French and Turkish presidents reached an unwritten agreement based on “mutual compromise on three issues for easing problems stemming from the parties’ positions,” Lellouche told the foreign affairs committee last week. The first compromise was an undeclared acceptance that France continues to oppose accession of Turkey into the EU, he said.
