Turkey's top court has rejected an appeal by the government's nationalist wing to suspend reforms designed to secure membership of the European Union.
The EU has praised Turkey for passing legislation in August which abolished the death penalty in peacetime and expanded cultural rights of the Kurdish minority.
But the 15-nation bloc has signalled that Turkey must fully implement these and other reforms before starting accession talks.
The Nationalist Action Party asked the Constitutional Court to overturn the liberalisation law and suspend the reforms in the meantime. The court is yet to rule on the whether the law should be annulled, but it rejected the application for a suspension.
The party's opposition to the reforms split the coalition government and forced a snap election, due on November 3rd.
The legislation lifts a ban on Kurdish-language broadcasting and education, and allows minority-run foundations to own property. Turkey hoped the reforms would persuade the EU to announce a date for membership talks at a summit in December.
But a leaked draft of the EU's annual enlargement report said Turkey had not yet fulfilled the political criteria to begin negotiations.
In the draft report, due to be released tomorrow, the European Commission said Turkey must do more to end torture and establish full civilian control over the influential military.