Spotlight: Erdogan to meet France's Macron for thawing Turkey-EU ties

ANKARA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay a visit to France on Friday and meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron amid Ankara's efforts to ease strained ties between the European Union and Turkey.

If Turkey wants "hands of a friend" to energize the long-stalled ties with the EU, Macron is the right European leader, Uluc Ozulker, a retired diplomat and Turkey's former ambassador to France, told Xinhua.

The meeting between Macron and Erdogan will be the first high-level one of the Turkish president with a prominent European leader long after Ankara engaged war of words with several European capitals and the EU over the Turkey's post-coup attempt measures.

Turkey and the EU have been engaged in a diplomatic spat since 2016 after Brussels strongly criticized Ankara for mass arrests in the country linked to the failed coup in July 2016.

The Turkish government declared a state of emergency after the coup attempt and launched a huge crackdown on state institutions. More than 55,000 have since been arrested, including journalists, lawyers, academics and opposition politicians.

For geostrategic reasons, however, Europe does not want to break away with Turkey, while France is the right choice to gain momentum in ties between Ankara and Brussels, Ozulker said.

He pointed to the strong political, economic and social ties between Turkey and France, saying Ankara was able to start accession talks with the EU in 2005 owing to the support by then French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerard Schroder.

However, Turkey's accession negotiations did not make much progress because of the direct or indirect opposition of several member countries including France.

Ozulker noted that France was among the countries blocking four chapters of the accession talks between Turkey and the EU.

Currently, Turkey has indicated that it desires warm ties with Europe, while the French president has decided to assume a role in easing the strained ties between Turkey and the EU, according to Barcin Yinanc, a Hurriyet Daily News columnist.

"Macron himself has taken upon the task of ensuring that dialogue between the EU and Turkey is maintained, capitalizing on his good relations with Erdogan at a time when other European leaders have had problems with the Turkish president," Yinanc explained.

Macron could face potential criticism from domestic public opinion for hosting Erdogan, "who is very unpopular in Europe these days," she noted.

In fact, the criticism over the Turkish government's crackdown on the opponents, particularly journalists, has spiralled into an war of words between Ankara and Paris before Erdogan's trip.

On Wednesday, Macron expressed his views about the "problem of press freedom in Turkey" ahead of Erdogan's visit.

The French president said he will raise the issue of jailed journalists in Turkey during talks between the two leaders.

In response, Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman of Erdogan, said on Thursday that Macron's remarks on the status of press freedom in Turkey are "based on lack of information," if not made on "prejudice."

"Those who try to cast a shadow on Turkey's fight against terrorism over the rhetoric on freedom of expression should better understand the realities of Turkey," Kalin told reporters, adding that the Turkish government is fighting three terrorist organizations.

Europeans either could not understand the terror threat posed against Turkey or they are in "double standard," he said.

Erdogan will show documents to Macron to prove that those journalists are under legal prosecution not because of journalistic activities, the spokesman noted.

Loup Bureau, a French journalist, had been detained in Turkey and jailed for more than seven weeks on terror charges, before he was able to return to France in September after Macron appealed to Erdogan for his release. Enditem