GOOD NEWS NEEDED BY SEMIH IDIZ (MILLIYET)

Columnist Semih Idiz comments on the need for good news from Turkey.[...].

[...] our membership talks will start on Oct. 3. The EU should keep its promise on this date, but certain EU circles, including France and Germany, say they will continue to try to persuade Turkey to give up its EU membership bid and that an important part of these efforts will be the ‘negotiation framework’ document. [...] they will take certain preconditions from the ‘general’ level to the ‘specific’ one. For example, good neighborly relations [...] {could be made} concrete by saying that as part of good neighborly relations, Turkey has to open its borders with Armenia. [...] If they say that, certain people in Turkey will [...] take up anti-EU rhetoric. Those who are opposed {to} Turkey within the EU also trust the demagogic words of these people.

However, whatever their subjective calculations are, not everybody in the EU is opposed to Turkey, including Britain, which next week will begin its term presidency. [...] those who support Ankara now expect good news from us. They say, ‘This way we can gird ourselves against those opposed to Turkey’

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.