TURKEY: The resignation of Turkey's senior diplomat charged with preparing for its talks on membership of the EU has heightened the tension over the country's proposed accession.
Murat Sungar, head of Turkey's special department for EU affairs, submitted his resignation with just two months to go before the scheduled start of talks on October 3rd.
Sungar denied he had resigned because he was unhappy with the lack of progress in Ankara's efforts to prepare for what are being seen as increasingly tough negotiations.
But his resignation comes in the midst of a diplomatic tiff with France which threatens to derail the accession talks before they begin.
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is said to be furious with Dominique de Villepin, his French counterpart, who called last week for Turkey to recognise Cyprus before it could begin the talks.
De Villepin's comments were seen in Ankara as further evidence of double standards in the EU's treatment of Turkey.
Erdogan said he was "saddened" by the comments. "It is out of the question for us to discuss or consider any new conditions with regard to October 3rd," he said.
Brussels has been at pains to distance itself from the French prime minister's intervention and reassure Turkey that the EU is not trying to erect new hurdles to delay the start of the negotiations.
However, France could single-handedly block the start of talks, since the negotiations require a unanimous mandate from the 25 member states, though de Villepin stopped short of threatening to use France's veto.
But his remarks point to a problem with Turkey's EU policy that Erdogan and his government have been trying to gloss over: that Turkey must address the question of its policy over Cyprus, an EU member.
The Mediterranean island has been divided into Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot territories since 1974, when Turkey invaded to thwart a coup that would have united Cyprus with Greece.
The international community recognises the Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia as representing the whole island; Turkey recognises the government of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Cyprus joined the EU in May last year, and last month Turkey signed a protocol extending its existing agreements with the union to include the island. But it declared at the time that this did not mean it recognised the Greek Cypriot government.
Some commentators wonder whether this position is tenable in the face of Turkey's policy of seeking nothing less than full EU membership.
At the least, they say, Ankara must take account of the fact that Cyprus is now a real hurdle in its accession process.
"Cyprus, and Turkey's membership [ of the EU], are internal matters in Europe now, and we need to take measures accordingly," columnist Murat Yetkin said in the daily Radikal newspaper last week.
Representatives of the 25 member states are to meet in September to discuss Turkey and Cyprus.
"The only question is to what extent the declaration in any way limits the impact of the signing [ of the protocol]," said Hans-Jorg Kretschmer, head of the European Commission office in Ankara. He said it was "too soon to say" whether de Villepin's comments would create a new condition or whether Turkey would have to address the problem immediately.
Turkey feels it already has made significant concessions on Cyprus without any concrete reward, either for the Turkish Cypriots, who remain formally outside the EU, or for Turkey. Any move to recognise Cyprus would inflame nationalist opinion within Turkey.
There is a growing view inside Turkey that Cyprus may be the issue that exposes most vividly its differences with the EU.
Despite last December's unanimous invitation from the 25 governments to Ankara to begin the accession process, both sides have been drifting apart over the past few months, a process hastened by the collapse of the European constitution in France and the Netherlands.
"It's finished," says Hasan Unal, a professor at Bilkent University, of Turkey's accession process. He has opposed full EU membership from the outset, saying an alternative arrangement would suit Turkey better. What is needed urgently, he says, is a way of stabilising the relationship between Ankara and Brussels that avoids excessive expectations and disappointments on both sides. "We have to sort out a new relationship between Turkey and the EU."
The task for Erdogan's government ahead of October 3, however, is to keep the accession process in full view and to avoid being distracted by political rows. - (Financial Times service)