Turkey’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters who were fed up with autocratic Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may have caused alarm in the capitals of Europe.  But for now it’s not getting in the way of business.

The European Union agreed to open a new round of membership negotiations with the Turkish government, even after Germany had threatened to block Turkish membership negotiations after more than three weeks of riots in Turkey during which riot police repeatedly attacked anti-government demonstrators with tear gas and pepper spray.

Turkey's foreign minister welcomed the decision.  Ankara has been pursuing membership in the European Union for more than half a century.

But even as his diplomats were embracing new dialogue with Europe, Erdogan delivered a speech warning of a shadowy “foreign” conspiracy aimed at toppling him from power, and that came a day after a tight ally of Erdogan accused a BBC reporter of being a “British Spy”.