Turkey

The following interview with Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit will appear in the forthcoming edition of Emerging Turkey 2003, which will be released internationally on October 10th. To order the book call +90 212 677 0580/81 or +44 207 403 7213, or visit our website, www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com.

The political ban on one of Turkey's most popular politician has called into question the country's European Union bid as it tries to establish its democratic credentials, and raised questions about the outcome of upcoming polls.

The following interview with Brent Scowcroft, the former National Security adviser to President George Bush and current chairman of the American-Turkish Council, will appear in the forthcoming edition of Emerging Turkey 2003, which will be released internationally on October 10th. To order the book call +90 212 677 0580/81 or +44 207 403 7213, or visit our website, www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com.

The Turkish government is downcast by the prospect of missing a self-imposed year-end date for the start of European Union membership talks after it passed a raft of ambitious EU-demanded reforms aimed at eventual membership in the bloc. Notwithstanding Ankara's grumbling over what it sees as a double standard for NATO's only Muslim member, the EU says reforms, although encouraging, do not by themselves warrant the start of talks at a summit in Copenhagen in December.

While Turkey's parliament recently passed a raft of ambitious reforms with disarming determination aimed at European Union membership, the run-up to the November 3rd elections is advancing along some well-tread lines, with the country's secular establishment mindful of divisions among the left and a rising conservative party with suspected Islamist links.

Kemal Dervis, Turkey's most sought-after political figure, announced last week that he was joining the People's Republican Party (CHP) after long speculation as to where he might eventually land to launch his previously forsworn political career.