Campaign Against Turkey’s EU Membership Launched in France

A caricature of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan holding a Turkish flag with Turks standing behind him appears on 100,000 flyers that are reported to have been passed around. The flyer, which also includes a French translation of the Ziya Gokalp poem, "Our minarets are our bayonets, the domes are our helmets, the mosques are our barracks and the Muslims are soldiers," Erdogan is described as an Islamist party leader.

The flyer handed out by the group reads: "We would like the European geography and cultural borders to be respected. Europe should remain European to maintain its power and identity. Turkey is a great country neighboring Europe, but it is not in Europe. To accept a country like Turkey, which is an Islamic power, will cause bad results politically, economically and demographically." Some politicians, including national deputies, have also started a campaign against Turkey’s EU candidacy.

Ali Ihsan Aydin / Paris / FRANCE