Letter: Don't shun Turkey

THE estrangement between the European Union and Turkey is terribly dangerous, seeming to convey the message that religious difference matters more than secular institutions (leading article, 13 March). The Kurdish problem should not be made an insuperable obstacle. After all, France was a founder member of the EEC despite her war in Algeria.

In a wider context, Turkey is the main barrier to the coalescence of a potential sectarian war-front stretching from Bosnia to Basra and beyond, by way of Palestine. For all our sakes, the Turks should be rewarded for eight decades of secular government.

P J STEWART

Oxford