Madam, - On May 21st your newspaper published a letter on Turkish reform signed by several dozen leftist luminaries from across the European Union.
These Euro-worthies would have us believe that the threat to secularism in Turkey has been overstated, that the reform process is a success story and that everybody should now "show solidarity with Turkish democrats".
They went on to deplore the recent intervention by the Turkish military while totally ignoring the ruling AKP's transparent Islamist agenda that is clearly aimed at undermining the secular Turkish state established by Mustapha Kemal.
As for Turkish democracy, back in June 1987 the European Parliament issued a statement on Turkey in which it referred to "the lack of true parliamentary democracy". Twenty years later it is clear that nothing much has changed, and certainly not the system of democracy that in 2002 allowed the AKP to claim two-thirds of the seats in parliament with barely one-third of the popular vote.
A "functioning democracy" Turkey may be, but not as we know it. - Yours, etc,
CONOR O'BRIEN, Mount Anville Park, Dublin 14.