April 29, 2004

Chirac: Turkey Entry Into EU Not Desired

French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that Turkey's entry into the European Union, which is set to expand to 25 members this week, is not "desirable" now but could be in the future.
[Always leave them with a French tease, eh?--J.T.]

Chirac, speaking at his first full-fledged news conference in six years,
[And the press here criticizes President Bush for not giving more press conferences! Sheesh!--Jen] said Turkey had not yet met the conditions for entry into the EU. He pointed to concern about issues ranging from human rights to judicial reform.
[...]
Chirac's comments came weeks after Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told parliament that France would oppose Turkey's entry into the EU now because it had not met the criteria for entry.

Whatta surprise.
And for this (mostly) Turkey refused to let our troops go through their country to effect Operation Iraqi Freedom, turned down hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. aid which we threw in to sweeten the deal, helped bring about the nasty Baathist guerrilla situation we're facing in Falluja today (which would have been taken care of last March if our troops had come into Iraq from the north) and put their decades-long good relationship with the United States in the toilet (well, certainly near the outhouse!).
I tried to tell them in my blog, as did others in the "legitimate" press, that this wasn't going to get them invited into Jacques's club, but they wouldn't listen.
Hope sprang eternal last spring for the nation that tries to straddle both Europe and the Middle East and doesn't seem to do too well at belonging to either place.
(Does anyone else get the feeling that old Jacques really enjoys telling folks they're "not wanted?")