Prime Minister Erdogan press conference
SHOTLIST
1.
Various shots of news conference with
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
2.
Media
3. SOUNDBITE: (
Turkish) Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish prime minister:
"
Turkey does not want to join the
European Union at any price - it is not a must for us. We have also complied with the
Copenhagen criteria in order to improve the standard of living of our own people. So if we are not accepted then we will continue as we have started and refer to these criteria not as Copenhagen criteria but as
Ankara criteria and carry on regardless."
4.
News conference
5. SOUNDBITE: (Turkish) Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish prime minister:
"We will not accept a conditional agreement of any sort. As I have already said, the procedure is clear. The means of starting the negotiations is very clear as are the guidelines for becoming a member. This is laid out very clearly, so to apply a discriminatory set of rules only to Turkey and not to the other 27 countries would be unacceptable. There is no way we could accept that."
6.
Erdogan at news conference
7. Protesters gathered at the
Trocadero in
Paris, with
Eiffel Tower in background
8. Protester holding
Armenian and
French flags, pan to protest
sign
9. Two women, one holding
Armenian flag
10. Camerawoman filming protester Hardout Nardissian
11. SOUNDBITE: (
English) Hardout Nardissian, president of the Committee for the
Defence of the Armenian
Cause:
"
We are here because the prime minister of Turkey is here in Paris to convince the
French people and the
French government that it's capable to enter into the European Union but we don't want a Turkey that denied (the)
Armenian genocide can enter as well as another country in this
Europe."
12.
Sticker protesting Turkey's EU entry, printed with the words "Armenian genocide," pan to French and Armenian flags held together
STORYLINE:
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made an official visit to
France on Tuesday hoping to shore up French support for its bid to enter the European Union.
But Erdogan's quest appeared a hard sell with French leaders still reluctant to include Turkey in the 25-member union and protesters voicing anger at Turkey's poor human rights record.
After meeting with
French President Jacques Chirac, Erdogan said Turkey was making the changes required to meet the so-called Copenhagen criteria for membership.
Turkey has passed sweeping democratic reforms to meet the criteria, abolishing the death penalty and granting greater cultural rights to long-oppressed
Kurds.
However Erdogan said Turkey should not be held to a higher standard than the other
EU members or the two nations hoping to join in
2007,
Romania and
Bulgaria, and he said his country would not join the EU "at any price."
Members of the
Revolutionary Armenian
Federation held a demonstration in Paris against Erdogan's visit, saying Turkey should not be allowed into the EU until it recognises the Armenian genocide.
Armenians accuse
Turks of a genocide of up to 1.5 (m) million Armenians between
1915 and 1923, but Turks claim the number of deaths is inflated and say the victims were killed in civil unrest.
One of the most prominent voices to oppose Turkey's membership has been former French President
Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who bluntly said that Turkey isn't
European and its entry would mean "the end" of the EU.
Erdogan met on Tuesday with
Alain Juppe, the former head of the ruling
Union for the
Popular Majority party, which also is hostile to Turkey's membership.
Membership of Turkey, a country of some 70 (m) million mostly Muslim inhabitants, would stretch the
EU's borders to
Syria and
Iraq - a fact that opponents say moves Europe too close to the unstable
Middle East.
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