ANKARA: Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, wanted by a UN court for war crimes, is to travel to Turkey over the weekend, but will not be arrested, a Turkish government official said Friday. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and ones against humanity in Darfur. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has invited Bashir to an economic summit in Istanbul and he is expected to be in the city on Sunday and Monday, barring a last-minute change.
“They responded positively to the invitation and we assume he will be coming, but things may change at the last moment,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“To arrest him after having invited him does not seem probable to me,” the official said.
The official explained that Ankara is not a signatory of the ICC treaty and “therefore its decisions are not legally binding for Turkey.”
Moreover, the arrest warrant for Bashir has not been backed up by any UN Security Council resolution, she said, adding that Turkey was only the host of the Istanbul meeting, with the list of invitations having been drawn up by the OIC.
Meanwhile, the European Union requested that Turkey reconsider its decision to invite the indicted leader, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.
The Turkish official, who is in Paris accompanying Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during a state visit, showed a EU request letter to Reuters, which reads: “The EU calls on Turkey to reconsider its invitation to Bashir to attend the OIC meeting.”
Muslim Turkey is a candidate to join the EU.
The ICC issued the arrest warrant for Bashir in March, making him the first sitting president to face such action. The Sudanese leader faces charges on five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes in the western region where the UN estimates that up to 300,000 people have died since 2003.
Turkey voiced concerns at the time that the warrant might prove counterproductive for efforts made to stabilize conflict-torn Sudan.
A string of African and Arab states along with Sudan’s key ally China have also slammed the warrant.
Last year, Turkey’s Islamist-rooted government came under fire for hosting Beshir twice: a bilateral visit in January this year and then at multilateral cooperation talks with African leaders in August. – AFP
Ankara urges Paris not to block EU bid
PARIS: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged France on Friday not to block Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, saying his country holds the key to a new relationship with the Muslim world.
In Paris for meetings with senior officials, including his counterpart Bernard Kouchner, Davutoglu said that the French government’s opposition to Turkey’s European ambitions was a grave mistake.
“We’ve had strong relations with France since the 16th century. No other nation in Europe can better understand Turkey’s importance,” the minister told the daily Le Monde before his meeting with Kouchner.
“Today again, Turkey and France have influence in the same regions. True cooperation could create a new dynamic in the Mediterranean, in North Africa, in the Caucasus and in the Middle East,” he said.
“This would also help the European Union. That’s why all the mistakes and misunderstandings that are sometimes expressed in France have no historical or political basis,” he argued.
Turkey began EU membership negotiations in 2005, but has so far opened talks in only 11 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must complete, while France, Germany and other states have sought to slow or halt the process.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has led opposition, arguing that Turkey – whose large population would be the first in the bloc to be mainly Muslim – should settle for a special partnership agreement.
“We want Turkey to be a bridge between East and West,” Sarkozy declared in June during an appearance with President Barack Obama at which he publicly disagreed with the US leader’s support for Turkish EU membership.
“I told President Obama that it’s very important for Europe to have borders. For me, Europe is a force for stability in the world and I cannot allow that force for stabilization to be destroyed,” Sarkozy declared.
But Davutoglu argued that Turkey had been promised that if it met the bloc’s entrance requirements in terms of political and economic reform and guarantees on human and civil rights, it would be admitted.
“No-one can force us to accept an option like a special partnership,” the minister declared. “We’re not looking for a favor or special treatment, just for agreements to be respected.
“The European Union’s key selling point is its respect for agreements. It’s thanks to that principle that the EU has become a draw. If it loses that, it loses all its legitimacy,” he said.
Sarkozy’s two top foreign policy officials – Kouchner and European Affairs Minister Pierre Lellouche – have in the past been sympathetic to Turkey’s bid, but the French leader himself has been firm in his opposition. – AFP
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