The article focuses on Turkey and the European Union (EU). When EU leaders agreed in December 2004 to open membership talks with Turkey, the country's future looked better than it had for decades. Three months on, the reformist zeal of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the mildly Islamist prime minister, seems to have diminished--and there are troubling signs of anti-westernism in some Turkish quarters. EU diplomats are now saying that Turkey must get moving if entry talks are to start, as promised, in October. Before the talks can begin, Turkey must formalise relations with all ten countries that joined the EU last May--including the Greek-Cypriot government, which is not recognised in Ankara. A sense of drift in Ankara has deepened with the defection of eight government deputies, including the liberal culture minister, Erkan Mumcu. The prime minister may be trying to assuage hardliners who resent his failure to make the changes they seek most. Or, more worryingly, Erdogan may be influenced by a resurgence of Turkish nationalism, which has surfaced in various ways. In the past few days, however, there have been some signs of the government shaking off its inertia.