Turkey urges France not to block EU bid

(PARIS) - Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged France on Friday not to block Turkey's bid to join the European Union, saying his country holds the key to a new relationship with the Muslim world.

In Paris for meetings with senior officials, including his counterpart Bernard Kouchner, Davutoglu said that the French government's opposition to Turkey's European ambitions was a grave mistake.

"We've had strong relations with France since the 16th century. No other nation in Europe can better understand Turkey's importance," the minister told the daily Le Monde before his meeting with Kouchner.

"Today again, Turkey and France have influence in the same regions. True cooperation could create a new dynamic in the Mediterranean, in North Africa, in the Caucasus and in the Middle East," he said.

"This would also help the European Union. That's why all the mistakes and misunderstandings that are sometimes expressed in France have no historical or political basis," he argued.

Turkey began EU membership negotiations in 2005, but has so far opened talks in only 11 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must complete, while France, Germany and other member states have sought to slow or halt the process.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has led opposition, arguing that Turkey -- whose large population would be the first in the bloc to be mainly Muslim -- should settle for a special partnership agreement.

"We want Turkey to be a bridge between East and West," Sarkozy declared in June during an appearance with President Barack Obama at which he publicly disagreed with the US leader's support for Turkish EU membership.

"I told President Obama that it's very important for Europe to have borders. For me, Europe is a force for stability in the world and I cannot allow that force for stabilisation to be destroyed," Sarkozy declared.

But Davutoglu argued that Turkey had been promised that if it met the bloc's entrance requirements in terms of political and economic reform and guarantees on human and civil rights, it would be admitted.

"No-one can force us to accept an option like a special partnership," the minister declared. "We're not looking for a favour or special treatment, just for agreements to be respected.

"The European Union's key selling point is its respect for agreements. It's thanks to that principle that the EU has become a draw. If it loses that, it loses all its legitimacy," he said.

Sarkozy's two top foreign policy officials -- Kouchner and European Affairs Minister Pierre Lellouche -- have in the past been sympathetic to Turkey's bid, but the French leader himself has been firm in his opposition.