MEP: clear majority of French population against Turkey's EU accession

The accession process of Turkey to the EU is a political process. It is not a social process, and it is not a religious process, a member of the European Parliament from Germany and vice chair of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE Group) said.

“You may hear about two issues: one related to the Armenian question and the other to Turkey's possible European Union membership. On the Armenian question, everyone knows what the discussion is about, and on the EU accession, a clear majority of the French population, not just the leadership, is against Turkey's accession. So some politicians may choose to exploit those feelings by linking the Armenian issue with EU accession, and therefore create an atmosphere that makes it difficult for France and Turkey to rebuild a constructive relationship,” Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said.

Dwelling on regional situation, the MEP said, “the entire issue of stability in the eastern Mediterranean is difficult right now. We have a terrible situation in Syria, tensions between the Palestinians and Israelis, extremists in power in Gaza, a changing Egypt that becomes more difficult to predict, hardly any progress on the island of Cyprus and now in addition to that we see the exploration of resources off the coast of Cyprus.”

“We need to talk about these things and find solutions to these questions,” Today’s Zaman quoted him as saying.