Madam, - A report in your edition of May 23rd, "Questioning of Kurdish family criticised", associates with me the statement that "there is a particular risk of sexual torture against failed asylum-seekers".
What I said was that a large number of reports and research by various institutions and organisations show there is a general threat from state security forces of rape and other sexual torture to women in Turkey, particularly Kurdish women. Ms Gül would face this threat if she and her children were deported, and the risk to her is increased because of the media attention her case has received in Ireland.
I also said that if the family were returned to Turkey, they would be marked out and detained upon arrival. Other deported asylum-seekers have been detained on their return and subsequently tortured.
There is no need for a detailed rebuttal of the Turkish embassy's letter of May 25th. Your readers will rightly be sceptical of any claims on behalf of a state where torture is an administrative practice and a daily occurrence.
These events raise questions about Irish complicity with torture and other brutality. The Minister for Justice must now say how many other people seeking asylum from Turkey and from other countries are taken to the embassies of the states they fled to be questioned and intimidated "in accordance with the normal procedure".
EU policy has glossed over continuing torture, intimidation and armed conflict in Turkey - despite evidence which I and many others have collected - insisting that it is now fit to begin negotiations for Turkish EU membership.
Are the methods of the Turkish state for silencing dissent and suppressing the truth acceptable in EU countries, especially when it is a Kurdish single mother and her children who are the victims? - Yours, etc,
MAGGIE RONAYNE, Lecturer in Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Galway.