EU Opens the Door, A Crack

Good news for the Turks:

Turkey has officially begun membership talks with the European Union.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul arrived in Luxembourg during the night for the opening ceremony, after Ankara agreed to the EU's terms for the talks.

The move follows more than 24 hours of fraught discussions among EU nations, which ended with a last-minute deal on the terms.

Austria withdrew a demand that Turkey should be offered an option short of full membership.

Turkey had flatly rejected such an option.

This isn't much, thus far, but it's good that Austria's belligerence didn't manage to sabotage things. So now we've agreed what to talk about. Maybe the actual talks can begin?