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Thursday, February 24, 2005

EUbusiness - Critics fear Turkey's Eurodrive may be idling

"Critics fear Turkey's Eurodrive may be idlingDocument Actions 24/02/2005

EU-member diplomats and the opposition in Ankara say they fear the Turkish government may have lost some of its drive after the relief of obtaining a date -- October 3 -- for the start of membership talks with the European Union. Despite his roots in Islamic fundamentalist politics, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said since coming to power in 2002 that EU membership was a top priority of his government, and he made good on his promise by wrangling a starting date for accession talks at the EU summit on December 17. Erdogan and his ministers were obviously relieved by their success at clearing a major hurdle on the way to bringing Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim but secular country of 71 million, into the European bloc. "

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