President Erdoğan To Visit France

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is scheduled to be in Paris for a one-day working visit on Friday.

About two weeks ago, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was in France to prepare for President Erdoğan's visit. Following Çavuşoğlu's visit, EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkır met last week with French government officials and conveyed a message that included Turkey's expectations from France.

According to press reports, Bozkır asked the French government to lift its block of Chapter 17 of the EU acquis, related to economic and monetary policies, against Turkey.

Speaking to the press in Paris, Bozkır said, “Let's overcome this psychological barrier and open Chapter 17 before the end of this year.”

President Erdoğan is going to Paris for a working visit and is scheduled to meet with French President François Hollande, a spokesperson from the president's office told Today's Zaman on Thursday.

Bozkır also said there are a number of important issues to be discussed between Erdoğan and Hollande, including the developments in Iraq and Syria, nuclear energy cooperation and talks of a possible purchase of a long-range missile defense system from France.

In the meantime, a representative of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in France held a press conference in Paris on Wednesday calling on France to pressure Turkey into allowing reinforcements to reach the besieged town of Kobani in Syria during Erdoğan's visit.

Turkey considers the PYD, a Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist organization. However, the US says that according to US law the PYD is not a terrorist organization. The US military recently air-dropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to PYD forces in Kobani who are fighting against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) -- a move that has been heavily criticized by President Erdoğan.

Khaled Issa, the PYD's representative in France, accused the Turkish government of preventing direct assistance to the resistance and of secretly supporting the ISIL militants.

According to a story by Radio France International (RFI), Issa said, “We are counting on the wisdom of President Hollande to convince Mr. Erdoğan to break off relations with the terrorists and stop preventing direct assistance to the resistance.”

Issa called on Hollande to convince Erdoğan to order the establishment of a corridor between Kobani and other parts of Syria controlled by the PYD but Turkey has already allowed a corridor for the Kurdish peshmerga forces crossing into Kobani through Turkish territory. The first group of peshmerga forces entered Kobani on Thursday from Turkey. The initial number of peshmerga forces who are scheduled to enter Kobani from Turkey is estimated to be 150, but this number may increase in the coming days.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)