Obstacles and Optimism as Turkey Embarks on EU Accession Talks

December, 2005 (pages 38-39)
Washington Report on Middle East Affair
By Jon Gorvett

For many Turks this year, Ramadan started in a more celebratory mood than usual, as news came that European Union accession talks finally had begun—46 years after Turkey first applied.
[...]
Yet meanwhile, back in Ankara and Istanbul, there were also some searching questions to be asked about just how popular EU membership is now among ordinary Turks themselves.
[...]
Cyprus [...] also a number of major domestic Turkish issues that are likely to be major obstacles to EU membership.
[...]
[...] there is the property issue. In Istanbul, the once large Greek and Armenian communities protest that much of their people’s real estate has been swallowed up by the state over the years, and claims for some form of restitution are likely to start flowing once the accession talks get under way. [...].
[...]
Foreign policy is another complication. Turkey’s commitments to the European Neighborhood Policy mean normalizing relations with all the countries surrounding it—a policy with particular relevance to Greece, with whom Turkey still has outstanding disputes over Aegean Sea air and sea limits, and Armenia, with whom Turkey has a border closed by the Turks in response to Armenia’s conflict over Nagorna Kharabakh with Turkish ally Azerbaijan.

The Optimists’ Argument
[...]
In late September, Turkey held its first-ever conference on the 1915 Armenian genocide, which, while protested by radical nationalists, nonetheless received official backing from the government itself. [...].
[...]

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.