US intervenes to rescue stalled EU Turkey talks

but nothing on the nitty gritty of the deal ( which I am beginning to suspect may involve "pressure" being applied the Austria. Article link is here. From the article is seems that Turkey's ascension talks have some strong support.

A failure to reach an agreement would be a blow to Britain, which is Ankara's greatest champion in the EU. Greece, Turkey's historic adversary but now a supporter of Ankara's EU bid, yesterday spoke strongly in favour of membership, as did Catherine Colonna, the French Europe minister.

Joschka Fischer, the outgoing German foreign minister, also made an impassioned speech in which he said Europe could not abandon its commitment to Turkey.

The Turkish government seems to have a fair idea about where the resistance is coalescing around

Money is a sign of Poverty - Culture Saying

Do I misunderstand the word deal? How can a deal be reached if one side just backs off. I always thougth a deal is something like a compromise, both sides get something.

Sky Newa: DEAL REACHED OVER TURKEY

Officials said Austria, which had been demanding the wording to the membership application be changed, was forced to back down.

From the Guardian: EU and Turkey agree terms

The only apparent concession to Austria in the talks was a minor change of wording regarding the EU's right to block Turkish membership during the negotiation progress, if member states believe it is becoming impossible to comfortably absorb the country.

I don't know whether Turkey should be a member of the EU or not. But what confuses me is the enthusiasm for it in the corridors of governmental power, considering the apparent popular disagreement.

The BBC has this chart

that seems to show very low support by the voters.

Is this another case of government leaders going in a different direction from the people?

The EU also announced it was opening accession talks with Croatia, which had previously been stalled because of Croatia's refusal to cooperate with the Hague on war crimes. On Friday the UN war crimes chief announced little to no progress on Croatia's cooperation. Now a few days later without looking the cameras "in the eye" she announced Croatia was fully cooperating with the UN. The EU immediately annouced accession talks.
Austria is and has long been the biggest supporter of prioritising Croatias accession over all else. Just put two and two togehter.

Path clear for Turkey to discuss joining EU

The European Union on Monday cleared the way for membership talks with Turkey after a day of high drama in which failure was only narrowly averted and even EU foreign ministers were left in the dark about the proposed deal.

Jack Straw, UK foreign secretary, bridged an internal EU rift with Austria over the start of talks but was left waiting for several hours while Ankara decided whether to accept the proposals.

(...)

The final proposals remained a closely held secret; British officials would not even allow Cyril Svoboda, the Czech foreign minister, to see the text sent to Ankara.

(...)

Ursula Plassnik, Austrian foreign minister, had called for the EU to scale down its commitment to full Turkish membership and place greater emphasis on the limits to the bloc's ability to take in new members. However the final deal maintains Turkish entry to the EU as the clear goal of the negotiations.

The final hurdle was Turkish worries that EU demands for it to move its foreign policy towards the EU's could stop it from blocking Cyprus from joining Nato. The EU provided assurances intended to satisfy the powerful Turkish military.

The breakthrough was enough to send the Istanbul stock market to a record high, with the market's main IMKB index rising 2.9 per cent. The Turkish lira was slightly weaker against the dollar and the euro.

Vienna was also pleased on Monday when Carla del Ponte, the United Nations chief prosecutor for former Yugoslavia, cleared the way for its ally, Croatia, to join the EU.

I can understand the need for these compromises, but I don't understand how keeping the story secret from the press - and from Foreign Ministers of EU members - can be of any help!

Blair vs accountability - who's keeping score? But of course, it's the EU's fault!

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes