Letter: Trial in Turkey

Sir: Julie Flint's attack on the trial of the PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, before it has even got under way is one-sided and flawed by factual errors ("What chance is there of a fair trial for Ocalan in Turkey?", 28 May). Many people in Turkey will see it as an attempt to undermine the workings of our system of justice.

How would you in Britain regard a similar onslaught against a British court before the opening of a major trial? The security measures taken in the Ocalan case are in line with those in top security cases involving terrorism in other countries.

Many of her other remarks about the situation inside Turkey are simply absurd. Ocalan himself has never denied leadership of the PKK.

If Julie Flint had been an unbiased observer, this was surely a point at which she could have looked in some detail at the activities of the PKK which brought Ocalan into the dock, rather than mentioning in passing that around 30,000 people have died, as if this were a minor point in the Ocalan story.

OZDEM SANBERK

The Turkish Ambassador

London SW1