by Hugh Schofield
PARIS, July 19 (AFP) - Turkey`s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks in Paris with his French counterpart Jean-Pierre Raffarin Monday at the start of a three-day visit to push Turkish entry into the European Union.
Speaking to reporters at Ankara airport, Erdogan said that in his meetings with French leaders he would "explain what steps we have taken in order to align ourselves with the EU and where we are in terms of implementation (of reforms)."
The prime minister, whose Justice and Development Party (AKP) has Islamist origins, was to lunch with President Jacques Chirac Tuesday after a meeting with business leaders. He will also see the heads of the three main political parties before leaving Wednesday.
A crucial period is approaching for Turkey`s application bid, with the European Commission due to give its opinion in October on a possible opening of negotiations, followed by a decision in December by European leaders on whether enough progress has been made towards the EU`s reform demands.
Erdogan was expected to use the French visit to build up support in the European country which has seen probably the most heated public debate over the suitability for the EU of a predominantly Muslim and Asian nation.
While Chirac has indicated in recent speeches that he now regards Ankara`s progress to EU membership as "irreversible" and spoken of its "historic and very ancient European vocation," many in his own government are deeply opposed to its accession.
In addition opinion polls indicate that a majority of the population is against Turkey`s admission to the 25-nation body.
"The opposition comes in various forms: fear of Islam and immigrants at one end, fear of seeing Europe dissolve into a vast free-trade zone for others," said Eddy Fougier of French Institute for International Relations (IFRI).
France also has a large Armenian community of some 450,000 people, whose pressure in 2001 secured the official recognition by the French parliament of the Armenian genocide. This remains a highly contentious issue between Ankara and Paris.
The opposition Socialist party said Monday it supports Turkish entry "as long as the accession criteria are respected," but both Chirac`s ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and its junior partner the Union for French Democracy (UDF) are sceptical.
"Europe`s historical identity is indissolubly linked -- not with the religious convictions of Europeans today -- but with a cultural and political model fashioned by 15 centuries of Christianity... Turkey is a stranger to this history," said UDF Euro-deputy Jean-Louis Bourlanges.
The left-wing daily Liberation said in an editorial that the "sticking-point between Europe and Turkey is not Islam or Christianity, but the secular basis for social ties and institutions. Turkey will have its own place in Europe ... once it has given up Sunni Islam as the de facto state religion."
But it went on in more encouraging vein: "There is no convincing reason to think that Islam is not in its essence compatible with democracy and secularism. Helping Turkey to prove this should be an uplifting challenge for Europeans."