Support for Chirac’s Turkey Policy is 52%

The poll was conducted with the participation of 939 people via telephone between December 17 and 18. While 48 percent of the pro Democratic Unions that show liberal tendencies in France approved of Chirac’s approach, 49 percent did not. Forty-nine percent of respondents who support the Union for Population Movement (UMP) do not approve of Chirac’s policies. Of the National Front, a far right political group, 35 percent support Chirac.

Le Figaro found that 41 percent of respondents would not be influenced by membership talks with Turkey when they vote to approve, or reject, a referendum on the European Constitution. The vote is scheduled for 2005. Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said that Italy supported Turkey’s full membership, and stated that he had difficulty understanding the people who are suspicious about the issue.

Newsweek: Erdogan is the smiling face of Islam

Fini also accused a coalition partner, the Northern Union Party, who opposes Turkey’s membership, of trying to make the issue a tool of domestic policy.

The Northern Union Party organized a protest in Milan against Turkey’s EU membership. A few thousand people participated in the protest, shouting slogans like, "No for Turkey, No for Islam, Yes for Christian roots".

Newsweek magazine, a prominent US periodical, reported in its international edition that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan led Turkey closer to the EU for the first time. He did so by passing reforms whose entire body proved that being both European and Muslim is possible.

The article, entitled "The Happy Faces of Islam", comments on the reform efforts of Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Bedevi. The edition will be published today.

The commentary reported Erdogan’s interview, "Can Islam and democracy live together? Those who discuss that question in the Middle East should visit Turkey and see whether it is practical there."