Turkey’s EU adventure will reach yet another crucial crossroads this week when European Union foreign ministers meet in Brussels today to decide the future of Ankara’s troubled negotiations in recommendations that are to be presented at December’s summit of European Union leaders this Thursday.

However, Ankara’s attitude in this most recent series of negotiations does not befit that of an EU candidate country.

The result of the coming negotiations is hard to predict but we are definitely in for some very tough bargaining.

Greece’s foreign policy must be grounded on two pillars.

First, the government in Athens must make sure that Greece and Cyprus do not find themselves on the ropes against the rest of the member states in the European Union.

Secondly, the policymakers in Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’s conservative administration must make clear that Greece will never abandon Cyprus – to the extent, of course, that it does not betray the country’s own national interests.

If Athens bases its policy on these two pillars during this week’s negotiations, Greece and Cyprus will both enhance their bargaining position vis-a-vis EU candidate Turkey.