Tayyip Erdogan bestrode the EU stage last week, pressing Turkey's European ambitions. In a flurry of meetings, he pledged to forge ahead with liberal reforms, but left sceptics still wondering if he could translate words into action. "The fact that he (Prime Minister Erdogan) came here gives reasons to be hopeful," said Amanda Akcakoca, policy analyst at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre.
"But people will still have this question mark ...there is scepticism due to the amount of lip-service we've had in the past," she told Reuters, referring to past declarations of Turkish leaders over commitment to EU accession.
Erdogan's presence, his first trip to the EU capital since December 2004, counts for something. Scepticism about the EU, the belief it is unfairly hindering Ankara's accession talks, has grown at home and powerful conservative opponents would gladly see him founder on his EU-related liberal reforms. Erdogan, heading a government that embraces centre-right elements as well as nationalists and religious conservatives, has said he is determined to resume EU-backed reforms, after a few years where they had been side-tracked by elections and domestic problems.
Moves earlier this month such as launching a Kurdish language channel on state television and appointing Turkey's first full-time EU negotiator were welcome in Brussels, EU officials said.
But the bloc wants Ankara to get on with more painful and long overdue reforms of the constitution and of the power of the army, improve free speech and grant more rights to minorities, among a long list of reforms required on the path to Brussels.
"It was a bit of an empty rhetoric in the past two to three years," said Sinan Ulgen, head of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies. "He (Erdogan) just has to follow his statements with actions now."
Turkey began accession negotiations in 2005 but talks have been moving at a snail's pace in a climate of domestic political problems in Turkey and a reluctance among major EU states such as France and Germany towards further enlargement of the bloc.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters in an interview last month that 2009 would be a litmus test for Turkey to show it is serious about wanting to join the EU.
"We now have a real chance for a new momentum," Rehn told a conference last Monday at the end of Erdogan's visit. "The key for that is the relaunch of reforms," he said.
EU officials said they had reasons to be more hopeful this time that statements would be followed by long-awaited reforms.
"There is a clear wish (on the Turkish side) to relaunch the process, to give positive signals," one European Commission source said.
"We are not giving a blank cheque but there is more than lip-service," the source said, referring to the Kurdish TV channel and the appointment of Turkey's new EU negotiator Egemen Bagis, a close adviser to Erdogan.
JP Morgan's chief economist in Turkey Yarkin Cebeci also said he was hopeful some reforms would follow Erdogan's renewed EU pledge. "Any progress would be good for Turkey," he told Reuters.
But he said that if the EU talks were important in the medium to long term, markets did not focus on that but on the strength of Turkey's financial system and on its external debt.
Analysts pointed out that progress in the talks did not rely only on Turkey but also on the EU reaching out to Turkey by agreeing to open more areas of talks. The bloc is split on whether Turkey should eventually join the club.