Madam, - Conor O'Brien (May 28th) states the obvious - that "Turkey is not a functioning democracy as we know it". Quite, but neither are the UK, France or several of our fellow EU-members.
In fact, the Turkish electoral system which Mr O'Brien describes produces a very similar parliamentary make-up to the UK. The AK party is moderately Islamist, but this much-abused term should be seen at least as much in a social and cultural sense as in a religious sense.
The "leftist luminaries" to whom Mr O'Brien refers to are absolutely correct that the Turkish army should stay out of politics. That well-known "leftist" weekly the Economistagrees. It recently stated that democracy (in turkey) was more important than secularism.
Both the "luminaries" and the Economistare, I believe, right, and Mr O'Brien is scaremongering. - Yours, etc,
ALAN BARWISE, Dalkey, Co Dublin.