Straw steers EU away from 'precipice' with Turkey accession deal

• Foreign Secretary looks to have repaired deal over Turkey's possible entry into the EU

• Talks mark a success for UK during its six-month EU presidency

• EU membership may still be 15 years in the future, however

Key quote

"Those in the EU who cannot digest Turkey being in the EU are against the alliance of civilisations. I appeal to the EU leaders to show good sense for the sake of global peace and stability." - Tayyip Recep Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister

Story in full

THE British government last night averted a deep political crisis in the European Union after it thrashed out a delicate agreement to begin accession talks with Turkey.

After over 24 hours of tense negotiations and with only a few hours' sleep, Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, brokered a successful compromise to allay Austrian and Turkish concerns about the terms of the negotiations.

The deal was finally clinched after a fraught four-hour wait on Turkey to agree to the fine details of the negotiating mandate.

"We have reached agreement. Inshallah, we are departing for Luxembourg," Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, said from Ankara as he prepared to board a plane to meet his 25 EU counterparts.

The deal paved the way for the celebratory launch of accession talks in Luxembourg, marking a milestone in Turkey's 40-year bid for EU membership.

The positive outcome to the intense session of diplomatic wrangling was a welcome relief for the British government which had billed the opening of talks with Turkey as one of the benchmarks of the success of its six-month EU presidency.

Mr Straw cautioned his 24 EU counterparts yesterday that a failure to go ahead with the talks could have disastrous consequences for the EU's future relations with Turkey.

"If we go the right way we reach the sunny uplands," he said. "If we go the wrong way, it could be catastrophic for the European Union."

Speaking at a rally of his ruling Justice and Development party on Monday, Tayyip Recep Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, also warned that any attempt to sideline Ankara would have wider global implications.

"Those in the EU who cannot digest Turkey being in the EU are against the alliance of civilisations," he said.

"I appeal to the EU leaders to show good sense for the sake of global peace and stability."

Mr Straw and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, were forced to steer negotiations along a "precipice" between the brinkmanship of the Austrian and Turkish governments.

Outside, hundreds of Armenians added to the tension with a demonstration demanding Turkey make amends for the killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule in 1915.

After seven bilateral meetings between Mr Straw and Ursula Plassnik, his Austrian counterpart, and a telephone call to Wolfgang Schuessel, the Austrian chancellor, Vienna appeared to backtrack on its demands that Turkey explicitly be offered "alternatives" to full EU membership from the outset.

The drama was heightened when Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, intervened

to assure Turkey that its agreement to the proposed EU negotiating framework had no implications for its relations with NATO.

The opening of talks with Ankara will only be the start of a ten- to 15-year process where Turkey will be expected to go through a series of economic and political reforms.