Former PM Costas Simitis, who supports going to the ICJ, advocated in a recent article that Greece selectively extend its territorial waters to 8, 10, or 12 miles after consultations with Turkey and other - seafaring countries, so as to ensure free traffic toward the Dardanelles.

But PM Costas Karamanlis avoided any reference to the possibility that Ankara might face serious repercussions for failing to fulfil its commitments.

"We supported and encouraged Turkey's European perspective based on a specific rationale and a clear strategy," Karamanlis said when pressed at a June 16 news conference to say how the EU should deal with Turkey's foot dragging. The Greek PM's response made clear that Athens is not even contemplating a veto if Ankara does not implement the Ankara Protocol, the document that Turkey signed in July 2005 requiring her to open her ports and airports to Cyprus.

The Turkish government has steadfastly refused to ratify the protocol, insisting that the EU must first initiate direct trade with Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

Karamanlis focused on the verbal admonitions to Turkey on issues of interest to Greece in the EU summit conclusions. The PM trumpeted a vague call on Turkey to abide by "the commitment to good neighbourly relations". "In this context, any action which could negatively affect the process of peaceful settlement of disputes should be avoided" was the statement adopted by EU leaders at Greece's proposal.

Despite Athens' steadfast support for its EU bid, Ankara has decided to advance a campaign criticizing Greece over policies affecting the Muslim minority of western Thrace, such as having the state appoint the local muftis, who act as judges applying Islamic law in family law cases. A delegation of Turkish MPs headed by former foreign minister Yasar Yakis slammed Greece for not recognizing the minority as Turkish during a tour of western Thrace.

Greece says that the Lausanne Treaty recognizes only a Muslim minority. Greek critics also point to the fact that the Muslim minority in Greece has mushroomed, while a major 1955 pogrom and systematic discrimination has decimated the Greek minority in Istanbul, from over 150,000 to fewer than 3,000 today.

Naturally, the European-Commission will have the last word in a progress report due in October, and Greek issues will not top the list of problems. The strong role of Turkey's military in politics and treatment of the Kurdish minority are key. Danish PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed outrage because 56 mayors in southeast Turkey are being prosecuted and face a 10­year jail term for writing him a letter requesting that he not shut down a Kurdish language radio station in Denmark.

"It is shocking that this can take place in a country seeking EU membership," Rasmussen said. The EU-Turkey Association Council slammed Turkish police for shooting dead 10 Kurdish protesters, including children, in March.

A Turkish prosecutor recently launched a preliminary probe of a recent open air liturgy in Cappadocia by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos when the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves group sued. The case was closed when the patriarchate submitted a document proving the state had granted special permission for the religious ceremony. Further down the road, Ankara will have to deal with what EU leaders called the union's "absorption capacity", a criterion potentially much more ominous than any relating to Cyprus or Greece. The recent summit's conclusions raise the prospect that Turkey could conceivably fulfil all requirements and not gain admission anyway, if the various countries which (unlike Greece) oppose full Turkish membership say that the union cannot absorb it.

"The pace of enlargement must take the union's absorption capacity into account... This specific analysis should also cover the issue of present and future perception of enlargement," the conclusions state.