Madam, - Conor O'Brien's distortion (August 5th) of Paul Gillespie's thoughtful and factual World View column of July 23rd makes one wonder if he has any first-hand knowledge of Turkey and its people.
My judgment after more than two years living and working there is that, as Mr Gillespie stated, Turkey has a moderate Islamist government, powerful only in the sense of having a decisive parliamentary majority. Mr Erdogan's government provides much needed political stability. If sustained, as seems probable, this will lead to rapid, long-term economic growth, transforming the economy in a manner comparable to the changes in Ireland over the past 10 years.
The demographic crisis faced by many EU countries in the next 20 years will mean those countries will either increase their birth rate, accept a lower standard of living or take increased numbers of immigrants.
There is little sign of the first two options emerging. Turkey will provide many of those immigrants, skilled and unskilled. This will further increase the desirable process of social and political fusion between the EU and Turkey. The EU may well need Turkey as much as Turkey needs the EU. - Yours, etc,
ALAN BARWISE, Ardeevin Tce, Dalkey, Co Dublin.