Turkish business elites lose patience with Erdogan government 

The Tüsiad chiefs called on the Erdogan government to refocus on the necessary reforms and use less political rhetoric on religious issues. The Turkish business elites fear that in view of new elections in 2007 (or early elections in 2006), the Erdogan government is trying to score with its pro-islamic constituencies and therefore "polarising" on issues related to secularism.

The warning of the business leaders comes at a time when market confidence in Turkey seems to be waning as shown by the fall of the Turkish lira in recent weeks. Turkey's central bank will hold an emergency meeting on 7 June to try to halt the slide of the country's currency. 

According to the Financial Times, an internal EU report written for a key EU-Turkey meeting on 12 June, will confirm that the process of reforms has slowed down and also hit out at several human rights violations.

The EU launched accession negotiations with Turkey on 3 October 2005. For an overview of the current state of these negotiations, read our special EU-Turkey negotiations LinksDossier.

Speaking at a party meeting on Saturday 3 June, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul reacted indirectly to the business criticism, saying that his country has adopted lots of reforms and that "the process will continue". "Turkey has changed both in economic and democratic aspects", Mr Gul said. He hoped that the 12 June meeting in Luxembourg will be "a turning point in Turkey's relations with the EU".