Turkey and France to jointly fight terrorism..

Turkey and France will establish mechanisms to jointly fight against terror, organized crime, and human and drug smuggling as part of a rare substantive bilateral agreement to be inked today, which will be a first of its kind for Turkey.

“The agreement has both technical and operational dimensions,” French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, who came to Turkey for official talks, told reporters in Ankara yesterday. “We will identify threats common to both countries. And we will move against them together. That would surely require joint operations as well.”

Gueant met with EU Minister Egemen Bağış and Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay and will hold talks with Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin today where an agreement will be signed. Gueant will also be received by President Abdullah Gül on Friday.

Turkish government officials have long been criticizing their European allies for their ignorance in cooperating with Turkey against the terror and have even targeted certain countries with claims of financial and political support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The agreement with France will focus on deepening cooperation on the fight against terrorism, organized crime, drug and human smuggling and illegal immigration between the two countries. It will be as substantive as possible and will also include establishment of mechanisms, officials said.

The PKK has an important presence in France, where it collects financial resources to fund the organization’s terrorist acts. Paris has conducted several operations to crack down on the PKK’s presence in the country and has arrested high-level PKK members but failed to extradite them to Turkey due to gaps in French laws.

Gueant said that although they would boost cooperation with Turkey on these issues, extradition of PKK members was still up to the French courts. “We, as the executive, cannot interfere in judicial processes,” he said.

Gueant was the right arm man of French President Nicholas Sarkozy when he was at the Elysée (office and residence of the President of the French Republic), Bağış said, adding that the interior minister was very much aware of Turkey’s sensitivities on these matters.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS