IN THE SPOTLIGHT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has been travelling so much recently that most Turks have to turn on their television to find out where he is. One date, however, has been fixed in his diary for some time. On Thursday and Friday he will be in Brussels, on a mission to collect what many Turks regard as a debt now due - the right of his overwhelmingly Muslim country and longstanding Nato ally to join the European Union.