Turkey was elated and relieved finally to have started talks on joining the European Union, but amid the joy some warned on Tuesday of big obstacles strewn on the road to membership.

"A new Europe, a new Turkey," enthused the Milliyet daily, embellishing its front page with the yellow stars of the EU flag and a picture of Kemal Ataturk, the man who founded the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 and sealed its Western orientation.

"The journey has begun," said Radikal, above a photograph of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul embracing his British counterpart Jack Straw in Luxembourg where an opening ceremony was held.

Turkey and the 25-nation bloc struck an 11th-hour deal to launch the talks late on Monday, despite deep European public skepticism that the Union will ever be able to digest the large Muslim country of 72 million people. Some Turks were also skeptical, with one academic calling it an unsustainable deal that would spark crises without end. But Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was going into the process realistically, seeing the EU "neither as a dream nor as an easy target." "EU membership is a natural extension of Turkey's historic progress. It is about turning Turkey into a society of democracy, freedom and justice," he told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in Ankara. "Our ideal is to take our place among the democratic, free and developed countries. The EU is the most appropriate route to reach this ideal."

Top-selling Hurriyet evoked past conflict between Turkey and Christian Europe, when Ottoman troops almost took Vienna, in describing the delaying tactics of arch Turkey-skeptic Austria during Monday's long hours of bargaining in Luxembourg. "Viennese Waltz -- Twice in history Turkey has been turned back from the gates of Vienna but this time Turkey is taking the road of peace and unity into Europe," the paper said. But beyond the euphoria and sheer sense of relief that talks have finally started after more than four decades of waiting, most Turks remained only too aware that membership is still far off and will require many difficult changes and sacrifices.

'Dangers'

Hasan Unal of Ankara's Bilkent University, a veteran euroskeptic, said he saw nothing in the document to celebrate. "The document offers Turkey an unsustainable negotiating process, fraught with dangers, which will create one crisis after another," he told Reuters.

"We will only celebrate when Turkey becomes a full member with equal rights. Turkey is not a country to celebrate only the right to sit down at the table," senior opposition lawmaker Onur Oymen told CNN Turk television. Mehmet Dulger, chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said Turkey-skeptics within the EU such as Austria and Cyprus would have nearly 2,000 opportunities to veto Turkey's EU bid during the lengthy negotiation process.

Each member state must approve the opening and the closing of 35 chapters, or policy areas, in which Turkey must adapt its laws and regulations before it can join the EU. The anti-government Cumhuriyet newspaper said the EU was still offering Turkey something short of full membership, despite rejecting an Austrian bid to say so openly. The agreement refers to open-ended negotiations whose final outcome is not known and envisages permanent safeguard restrictions on free movement of Turkish labor and also on Turkey's access to farm subsidies and regional aid. At Austrian insistence, it makes clear the EU's capacity to absorb Turkey would be a factor in the pace of Turkey's entry.

"Who decides the criteria for determining the EU's 'absorption capacity'? It will not be difficult to come up with criteria showing Turkey cannot join," said Suat Kiniklioglu, director of the German Marshall Fund's Ankara office.

Media in Greece, which has strongly backed Turkey's bid despite traditional rivalry, applauded the deal but sounded skeptical of the outcome.

"Welcome...but slowly, slowly" the daily Eleftherotypia newspaper said -- in Turkish -- on its front page.