it's certainly something that will
enable everyone in Turkey to project how
important they are now for the European
Union in EU that had spurned them over
the last seven or eight years their
Middle East policy which was slightly
delusional it rested on the idea of the
revival of a neo Ottoman Middle East led
by mr. hora lies in ruins and that's
partly why they are looking for a new
relationship with the EU but one in
which as they would say in Brussels it's
the Europeans now who are the d'mon does
not the Turks banging at the door of
Brussels it does it seems to me take
some of the gathering political pressure
off mrs. Merkel at home and in the rest
of Europe particularly ahead of regional
elections in the coming days but so much
about this deal still rests on the
ability to implement and that's that's
really far from clear visa
liberalisation is likely to be very
contentious and reopening accession
negotiations is likely to be problematic
so long as there are in visas
particularly from Cyprus
this is a deal done out of desperation
with a country which has turned virulent
Lee authoritarian under mr. Aragon I
mean he's only just closed a major
opposition Press Group the reporters
without borders the media NGO places
turkey at 149 in its League table for
press freedom that places it just above
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and
Russia it's not a pretty deal and it
isn't likely to look prettier as the
weeks go by