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In the past few years, Turkey has largely left behind its reputation as an economic debacle by stabilizing inflation and implementing widespread overhauls. Those actions brought the country to the point where the EU had few reasons to deny it membership.
Those overhauls -- from banking to criminal justice -- and the prospect of EU talks in turn created a virtuous circle by attracting a slew of foreign investors. And the opening of talks Monday gave Turkey's economy another boost. Yesterday, Turkey's index of 100 leading shares hit a high; the Turkish lira strengthened 0.6% against the dollar; and the yield on 2007 government bonds fell half a percentage point to their lowest level ever of 14.62%, indicating a reduced perception of risk.

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Wall Street Journal Europe. October 5, 2005