Turkish reaction: Turkey revelled in Angela Merkel's failure to win a clear victory in the German election.
"Her opposition to Turkey didn't do her any good," said the front-page headline in Turkey's Milliyet newspaper yesterday.
Turkish newspapers predicted that whatever happened in coalition talks, a new German government was almost certain not to deviate from Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's backing for Turkey to start accession talks with the EU on October 3rd.
"It was an auspicious result for the EU process," said Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Mr Schröder boldly wooed voters among Germany's 2.6 million ethnic Turkish community by firmly supporting Turkey's bid to join the EU.
Ms Merkel's conservatives favour an EU "privileged partnership" for Turkey, a stance backed by German public opinion, which is strongly against Turkish entry.
"It was a campaign which showed the result of negative propaganda against the Turks and especially against Turkey's membership of the EU," said Mr Erdogan.
The Turkish Community in Germany association said that based on preliminary results, five ethnic Turks were elected to the German parliament, up from two in the previous assembly.
"This election showed that German Turks have become a political force in Germany," the association's deputy chairman, Kenan Kolat said .
"The CDU/CSU would be well advised not to lose sight of the Turkish community because it is simply not viable to run an anti-Turkey campaign."
In their homeland, Turks have mostly elected centre-right parties, but in Germany they traditionally back Mr Schröder's SPD.
Turks are Germany's biggest minority but only 600,000 can vote due to dual citizenship rules.
Sentiment on the Turkish financial markets was also upbeat.
"This is the most positive news we can hear ahead of October 3rd," said one banker. But the Sabah newspaper predicted that, even though the accession talks were likely to start, the negotiations could still be difficult, and German policy towards Turkey was likely to harden whatever government emerged.
Turkish parliamentarian for the ruling Justice and Development party Yasar Yakis said:
"We Turks do not want something at the expense of Germany, because what is good for Germany is good for Turkey."