Interviewer:    Uh-huh.

Interviewee:    And it’s largely up to Turkey to figure out how soon it can adopt these 100-thousand pages of laws and prove that it can adhere to those laws, not just pass the law but actually implement them throughout the country.  It was an attitude that, “Well, there’s a problem but we’re just going to keep working at it.  We’re not going as fast as we like, but we’re going to keep working.”  But, there has been a change.  I think there are now is more of an attitude of can we keep this going, are we heading for a train wreck?  And aside from these particular deadlines that I have mentioned, what seems to have happened?  The nearest that I can figure it out is that both in Turkey and in the EU were listed as perceived in Turkey by Europeans.  Both cases, the domestic politics now encouraged in Europe anti-Turkish statements, and in Turkey, domestic politics have slowed the reform process that is necessary.  So in both areas, there is less incentive to move forward for domestic political reasons.  Now, we know politicians will say all sort of things no matter what to get votes, that’s not unusual.  And to some degree, it’s always hard to judge what is actually political speech and what is what they really think and watch.  But I have to say that I think that at sides, the attitudes have hardly gone in both sides.  Why has this happened in Europe?  I think that some to a great degree, it is a matter of leadership change.  In 2004, when Turkey was given the right to open negotiations, we had Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroder in office.  And despite the American’s frequent disagreements with those 2 leaders, they did support Turkish membership.  We now have Angela Merkel and even more so, we have Nicolas Sarkozy.

Interviewer:    [Laughing]

Interviewee:    He is someone who has made very clear repeatedly his opposition to Turkish membership.  I understand that that creates a lot of backlash in Turkey.

Interviewer:    Uh-hmm.

Interviewee:    That would be inhuman if it did not.  But, he is partly also speaking to a European public that is increasingly sceptical.  Why are they sceptical?  In part, it’s because of the reason to enlargement.  Europe has a huge case of indigestion.

Interviewer:    [Laughing]