"Turkey, Europe and Mideast security ANALYSIS / THE CHALLENGE FOR ISTANBUL
Turkey is emerging as a role model for those across the Middle East who are seeking reform and modernisation _ while Ankara prepares for EU accession
By BULENT ARAS
Many factors contributed to the French and Dutch objections to the proposed European Union constitution. One usually unstated factor is a fear of Turkish membership in the Union. That membership drive, however, has already transformed Turkey.
In order to prepare for EU accession, Turkey has undertaken vast and serious legal, political, and economic reforms. Turkey's bureaucrats, politicians, and citizens united to fulfil the Copenhagen criteria for EU membership and tolerated the pain of the IMF-directed structural-adjustment programmes."
More:Bangkok Post Tuesday 14 June 2005 - Turkey, Europe and Mideast security ANALYSIS / THE CHALLENGE FOR ISTANBUL
