Murat Sungar, Turkey's top diplomat for EU affairs, said on Saturday he had resigned after consultations with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Turkey's chief EU negotiator Ali Babacan. The state-run Anatolian news agency quoted Sungar, secretary general of Turkey's European Union General Secretariat, as saying he had stepped down for personal reasons.
Turkey's mass circulation daily Hurriyet said his resignation was because of what it called a government failure to form a team of negotiators that will work under Babacan after EU and Turkey start membership negotiations on October 3.
But Sungar told Anatolian: "Totally personal and private circumstances have led me to this decision ahead of the (EU negotiation) period, which is expected to take a long time."
He added: "I also acted with the belief that...it would give the government a chance to work with teams it deems appropriate at a time when it is forming a new management team."
EU leaders decided in December to open full membership talks with Ankara on October 3 after they said Turkey had met all the criteria.
But the start of the talks depends on the approval of a negotiating mandate unanimously by all of the 25 members states including Cyprus, which Turkey does not recognise.
To clear the last hurdle before the talks officially start, Turkey signed a protocol in July extending its 10-year-old customs union deal with the EU to new member states including Cyprus, but said then the signing did not mean the recognition of Cyprus.
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