The deaths of eight hunger strikers in Turkish prisons has strained relationships between that country and the European Union only a week after deputy prime minister Mrs Tansu Ciller met the Taoiseach in Dublin to assure him of her country's earnestness in pursuing a course, including democratic reforms and improvements in human rights, which would lead in the long term to Turkey becoming a full member of the EU.
Three hundred extreme left wing prisoners, some of them members of urban guerrilla factions, have pledged to fast to death to gain improvements in prison conditions, 68 of them are reported to be in serious condition and now their hunger strike has been joined by 10,000 Kurdish prisoners.
Turkey's fragile coalition government is in crisis. Members of Mrs Ciller's True Path party have been deserting her controversial coalition with Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's Islamic Welfare party which Mrs Ciller herself has described as extreme rightist. Mrs Ciller is a sophisticated politician and an economist who realises her country's future lies in the closest possible links with her European neighbours and that an improved human rights record is needed in order to forge those links.
Political sophistication is not, however, the strong suit of some of her political associates. The man dealing with the crisis, which has spilled over into the bombing of Turkish businesses in Germany, Justice Minister Mr Sevket Kazan, is unlikely to heed world or European opinion much less to bow to it.
Mrs Ciller has told this newspaper that her country will abide by rulings of the European Court of Human Rights when it pronounces on pleas made by six jailed Kurdish parliamentarians. This is a major step in the right direction but it does not go far enough to rectify the current situation.
Turkey promised a month ago to make important improvements in the conditions which its large prison population endures. The European Commission in Brussels and the Parliament in Strasbourg have called on Turkey immediately to implement that promise.
Veiled threats have been thrown out that funding to Turkey under the Mediterranean Development Programme (MEDA), freed from a Greek veto just a week ago, may once more be blocked. Mrs Ciller has the political savoir faire to realise that much needed financial support from the EU depends on a better record of democracy and human rights. Her senior coalition partners appear to think otherwise.