Gul, meets with visiting French State Minister

President Abdullah Gul yesterday met with France's Minister of State for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet, in Ankara to attend a Turkey-European Union Troika meeting. During their talks, Gul reportedly conveyed a message to French President Nicolas Sarkozy not to harm Turkey's motivation to pursue EU harmonization reforms. Stressing that Ankara has made great progress in both political and social reforms, as well as human rights and freedom of speech, Gul said that EU member states should avoid discouraging Turkey from continuing this progress. He added that France should be open to Turkey's full membership perspective and clearly express this. For his part, Jouyet said that his country has no intention of harming Turkey's EU membership progress, adding that Ankara shouldn't be worry about France's EU term presidency, which begins in July.