On 17 December, the European Council will decide whether or not to open accession negotiations with Turkey. Its decision will be based on the comprehensive Turkey report presented by the Commission on 6 October which serves as an intelligent guide for drawing up the negotiating mandate as well...

The long presidential reign of Rauf Denktas came to an end with the election of April 17, 2005. After almost thirty years in the highest office of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Denktas - a resolute opponent of reunification of the divided island - has been succeeded by the...

On 3 October the European Union intends to launch its accession negotiations with Turkey. However, the decision to initiate talks may end up not being decided until an extraordinary meeting of the European Council on 26 September, or even until the morning of 3 October itself. For at their...

In late March 2006, the Kurdish part of Turkey experienced its most violent clashes in a decade. Since then, the level of insecurity inside the country has risen, because it has become abundantly clear that there can be no question of any 'normalisation' of the Kurds' situation in Turkey. The...

At a meeting held in Brussels on 14-15 December 2006, the European Council confirmed the decision reached by the General Affairs Council (i.e. EU foreign ministers) on 11 December to provisionally suspend eight chapters from the accession negotiations with Turkey. That decision was prompted by...

The 'Progress Report' on Turkey's efforts on its way to accession, published by the European Commission on October 14, is mostly a routine step in a highly ritualized political process. It deals with the obvious and hardly touches upon the issues of the 'agenda behind the agenda.' These are...