There was a genuine sense of an important turning point when the Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, gave a press conference to welcome the EU's invitation to Turkey to become a candidate member and explain his government's policies. "It is a landmark event, not only for Europe and Turkey, but for the world as well," he said.
Mr Ecevit believes Turkey will be able to prepare for membership much more quickly than expected. An accession partnership will now be agreed with Ankara as a basis on which to open actual membership negotiations, which will happen only when the EU judges that Turkey has fulfilled the political criteria for membership.
The decision has been widely accepted in Turkey as a turning point, strengthening democratic reforms and the political forces there which back them. Mr Ecevit read out a list of reforms already introduced by his coalition government, including removing military judges from the State Security Court, making it more difficult to close down political parties and freeing writers and journalists from detention. He said his party favoured abolishing the death penalty, but would have to convince its coalition partners. The Finnish Prime Minister, Mr Paavo Lipponen, said it was Turkey's own choice to carry out reforms. "I very much hope one of the first will be getting rid of the death sentence."
Mr Ecevit believes many European leaders thought Turkey had become less important after the end of the Cold War and were much slower than the Americans to realise the opposite was in fact the case.
Mr Lipponen played a key role in convincing the Turks to accept the EU offer. In a letter to Mr Ecevit he explained that no new condition was laid down for Turkey in addition to the Copenhagen ones applying to all candidates for accession, and that references to the need to settle disputes peacefully and to Cyprus arose in relation to political dialogue. Mr Ecevit said he hoped to resolve Aegean disputes with Greece through dialogue, without resort to the International Court of Justice. A Cyprus settlement would depend on recognising that two separate states had been established, he said.
He denied that the Kurdish question concerned a separate people, but was rather a question of regional backwardness caused by a feudal social structure requiring a determined economic programme of development. He blamed neighbouring states for stoking up a separatist terrorist movement and said that once that threat receded it would be possible to address cultural questions, such as teaching children through the Kurdish language. The Kurdish Workers' Party strongly welcomed the EU decision in the belief that it would encourage political dialogue and an eventual political settlement of the conflict.
That possibility was recognised by the EU's External Affairs Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, at a briefing here. Referring to his experience in Northern Ireland, he said he had seen courage and determination there and had a similar sense when he saw the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Costas Simitis, taking "very brave and difficult decisions and trying to create a new political future".
There was much praise for Greece's decision not to block the Turkish candidacy. Mr Simitis faces an election next March and wants to bring his country into the euro and the Schengen free travel area in the EU. He has certainly generated goodwill for those objectives.
There was also a recognition that the US strongly supported the decision. President Clinton phoned Mr Ecevit to say it was a victory for Turkey and urged him to accept it. Finnish diplomats admitted they knew it would be acceptable before the EU delegation led by Mr Javier Solana was despatched from the summit to Ankara on Friday. The German, British and French governments were also involved.
But the Finnish presidency must take the major credit for the initiative and the delicate wording that clinched it. President Chirac told President Ahtissari of Finland that he would judge their presidency by their success or failure with the Turkish question. At his press conference here he freely acknowledged its historic importance.
