 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "France–Turkey relations" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
 France |  Turkey |
|---|---|
| Diplomatic mission | |
| Embassy of France, Ankara | Embassy of Turkey, Paris |
French–Turkish relations cover a long period from the 16th century to the present, starting with the alliance established betweenFrancis I andSuleiman the Magnificent. Relations remained essentially friendly during a period of nearly three centuries, with the resumption of intense contacts from the reign ofLouis XIV. Relations became more complex with theFrench campaign in Egypt and Syria byNapoleon I in 1798, and the dawn of the modern era.Both countries are members of theCouncil of Europe andNATO. France is anEUmember and Turkey is anEUcandidate. France opposes Turkey's accession negotiations to the EU, although negotiations have now been suspended.
During theAlgerian War, Turkey under the administration ofCelal Bayar andAdnan Menderes supported France and voted in favor of France duringUN votes between 1954 and 1960 against the Algerian insurrection.[1]
In 1396,Jean Le Maingre, theMarshal of France, took part in the joint French–Hungariancrusade against the Ottoman Turks, which suffered a heavy defeat on September 28 at theBattle of Nicopolis. He was taken hostage by theOttoman sultanBayezid I, but, unlike many of his companions, escaped execution and was eventually ransomed. From France, it was said about 5,000 knights and squires joined, and were accompanied by 6,000 archers and foot soldiers drawn from the best volunteer and mercenary companies; totalling some 11,000 men.[3]Philip of Artois, Count of Eu, theConstable of France, was captured in the battle, and subsequently died in captivity.[4]
The Franco-Ottoman alliance, also Franco-Turkish alliance, was an alliance established in 1536 between the king ofFranceFrancis I and the Turkish sultan of theOttoman EmpireSuleiman the Magnificent. The objective for Francis I was to find an ally against theHabsburgs (seeFrench–Habsburg rivalry andOttoman–Habsburg wars). King Francis was imprisoned inMadrid when the first efforts at establishing an alliance were made. A first French mission to Suleiman seems to have been sent right after theBattle of Pavia by the mother of Francis ILouise de Savoie, but the mission was lost on its way inBosnia.[5]
In December 1525 a second mission was sent, led byJohn Frangipani, which managed to reach Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, with secret letters asking for the deliverance of king Francis I and an attack on the Habsburg. Frangipani returned with an answer from Suleiman, on 6 February 1526:.[5] Top-level strategic relations between theOttoman Empire and theKingdom of France started during the reigns ofSüleyman the Magnificent and theValois kingFrancis I in the first quarter of the 16th century, at a time when the French king was in critical need of alliance and assistance from theOttomanSultan. The contacts were further enhanced, especially in a commercial viewpoint, with thecapitulations granted by the sultan in 1535 and starting withJean de la Forest in that year,France had an ambassadorial representative inTurkey ever since. These privileged trading conditions were to mark the relations, both in commercial terms and beyond, till their abolition with theTreaty of Lausanne in 1923, and to gradually increasing disadvantage and decreasing leverage for the Ottomans.
In 1663, the Ottomans launched a disastrousinvasion of the Habsburg Monarchy, ending at theBattle of St. Gotthard. The battle was won by the Christians, chiefly through the attack of 6,000 French troops led byLa Feuillade andColigny.[6]
In 1669, during thesiege of Candia, the French princeFrancois de Beaufort led the French troops defending theVenetian-ruled Candia (modernHeraklion, Crete) against the Ottoman Turks.
TheBarbary slave trade andOttoman corsairs originating fromOttoman Algeria were a major problem throughout the centuries, leading to regular punitive expeditions by France (1661, 1665, 1682, 1683, 1688).[7] French admiralAbraham Duquesne fought the Barbary corsairs in 1681 and bombardedAlgiers between 1682 and 1683, to help Christian captives.[8]
The intensity of the contacts is demonstrated by the opening of up to forty French consulates, often focused on trade relations, in Ottoman lands in the 18th century.[citation needed] The first Turkish representative invested with an extended period mission to theParisian court wasYirmisekiz Mehmed Çelebi, in the beginning of the 18th century, at a time when the Ottoman Empire sought to grasp the reasons for its loss of prominence as compared to theEuropean powers.
The two countries have been in a state of war three times.[citation needed] The first time was duringNapoleon'sEgypt-Syria campaign in 1798–1800. The second time was during theFirst World War, especially inGallipoli campaigns where the French forces were comparatively less heavily invested thanBritish andANZAC troops, and the last time between 1919 and 1921 in the phase of theTurkish War of Independence, in what is generally termed as theCilicia War, where the conflicts were often localized and sporadic in character, and the diplomatic pourparlers were being pursued during the very occurrence of the clashes. With theAccord of Ankara signed on 20 October 1921 between the two countries, France became the first western power to abandon the claims that had been instituted by theTreaty of Sèvres and effectively recognize the new Turkish governments based inAnkara.
French is the language associated with theTanzimat period of reforms (1839–1876) inTurkish history. Apart from those involved in politics and diplomacy, also the authors and their immediate public during the various successive stages of modernTurkish literature overwhelmingly had the French language as their primary Western reference. Its preponderance as the first foreign language acquired by members of Turkey's educated classes lasted well into theRepublic of Turkey, in fact until quite recently. Currently, English is the overwhelmingly popular choice amongstTurks learning a foreign language, having supplanted French long ago.[9] Although there are fewer Turks today who learn French as their sole foreign language, its knowledge is still very well represented among theintelligentsia and as such, highly valued, often considered a privilege by those who have command of it.[citation needed]
According to a 2006 European Commission report, 3% of Turkish residents are able to carry on a conversation in French. The recently growing immigrant communities of Turkish origin, at all levels of the society, in France,Belgium,Switzerland andCanada also helped strengthen the position of the knowledge of French in Turkey, both in qualitative and quantitative terms. In Canada, the vast majority of Turkish-Canadians are settled in anglophone areas, limiting their exposure to the French language.[citation needed]
In 2004, PresidentJacques Chirac said that France will hold a referendum on Turkey's entry into the EU when the issue arises, and any further EU enlargement will also be subject to a popular vote.[10]
In 2007, French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy stated that "Turkey has no place inside the European Union." Sarkozy continued, "I want to say that Europe must give itself borders, that not all countries have a vocation to become members of Europe, beginning with Turkey which has no place inside the European Union."[11]
France's position on Turkey's EU accession was unchanged a decade later. In 2018, French PresidentEmmanuel Macron stated that “ As far as the relationship with the European Union is concerned, it is clear that recent developments and choices do not allow any progression of the process in which we are engaged”.[12]
With the open market conditions (for industrial products) set off with theEU-Turkey Customs Union starting in 1996, trade figures between France and Turkey were boosted by two and a half fold during the ensuing five years, reaching 5.8 billionDollars in 2000, and with France registering a clear surplus. Turkey became France's third largest trade partner outside the EU and France became Turkey's third largest partner overall. The loss of impetus caused by the late 2000 and early 2001 financial breakdowns in Turkey were already compensated for in 2002.
Until recently, Turkey still attracted a modest share in globalforeign direct investment trends, although France and her household brand names were markedly present in this share since the 1960s. French FDI stepped up as of the second half of the 1980s in a move checked temporarily by the same financial crises of 2000–2001. In the period 1980–2000, France was cumulatively the first foreign investor in Turkey, investing 5.6 billion Dollars in value. In 2003, according to theTurkish Treasury, there were 270 French enterprises in Turkey, corresponding to significant market shares inautomotive,construction —especially for the production ofelectricity—,cement,insurance,distribution andpharmaceutical industries.[13]
Following approval of a French bill on 22 December 2011 that would makedenial of theArmenian genocide a crime punishable by one-year prison sentence and a fine of €45,000 (about $61,387), the Turkish government froze bilateral relations and political meetings with France. Turkey also cancelled permission for French warships to dock and French military planes to land in Turkey, and every French military plane would have to request permission for every flight in order to use Turkish airspace.[14][15] The Turkish government had previously warned the French government that passage of the bill in the senate, whereupon it would become law, would irreparably damage bilateral relations.[16]
Because Turkey cut off access to its airspace and sea lanes to French forces, France has had to deal with a military logistics problem, and found it difficult to get its troops to and from Afghanistan, since any other route was deemed both risky and "too costly", according to the French Defence MinisterGérard Longuet.[17]
On 28 February 2012, France's Constitutional Council ruled that the new law is unconstitutional and invalidated the law.[18] However, France had in 1990 passed theGayssot Act which made it illegal to question the existence ofcrimes against humanity, intended to be directed at theHolocaust.[19]
Turkey'sNational Intelligence Organization (MIT) was blamed for the2013 murders of three Kurdish activists in Paris.[21]
On June 17, 2020, France accused Turkey that Turkish ships harassed a French warship which tried to check a Turkish vessel, which was suspected of smuggling arms toLibya, and that the Turkish navy is using their NATO call signals while accompanying Turkish vessels suspected of breaking the UN arms embargo in Libya.[22] According to French officials, when the French ship tried to check the vessel, the Turkish vessel switched off its tracking system, masked its ID number and refused to say where it was going while the Turkish frigates flashed their radar lights three times against the French warship, suggesting a missile strike was imminent.[23] On the other hand, Turkish officials, denied that the warship was harassed and claimed that the French warship did not establish communications with the Turkish vessel during the incident.[24][25] On June 18, NATO said that it will investigate the incident.[26]
In November 2019, French PresidentEmmanuel Macron criticized theTurkish invasion of north-eastern Syria, describing the offensive as contributing to "brain death" in NATO by undermining coordination between allies. Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan replied by claiming Macron had a shallow understanding of NATO, adding that Macron may be "brain dead".[27]
In October 2020, afterSamuel Paty was beheaded by anIslamist terrorist for showing caricatures of Mohammed during a lecture about freedom of expression,[28] the two presidents clashed again in their comments about the murder. Macron referred to the murder as indicative of broader 'Islamic separatism' which the French state would combat, while Erdoğan responded publicly by suggesting that Macron required mental health treatment. Following this comment, France recalled its ambassador from Turkey.[29] Erdoğan then called on Turkish citizens to boycott French products.[30] The French satirical magazineCharlie Hebdo subsequently published a cover depicting a debauched Erdoğan, which elicited threats from the Turkish government of "legal, diplomatic actions" concerning its publication.[31]
In 2021, the French President said in an interview that Turkey will attempt to interfere in the 2022 French presidential election by “playing on public opinion.” He added that Turkey distorted his comments on Islam and spread lies from media controlled by Turkey and Qatar.[32] Turkey rejected the claims about the election interference.[33]
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
|  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
