Madam, - I found it baffling to read Dan O'Brien's view that Cyprus has a "wildly disproportionate and often pernicious influence" on EU relations with Turkey ("EU needs to gain acceptance and understanding from voters", Opinion, August 6th).
Turkey is a semi-democratic state where political interference in the judiciary is common, the military constantly threatens to overthrow the government and that same military is illegally occupying the territory of a foreign country. That is where Mr O'Brien should look for problems in EU-Turkish relations, rather than swallowing London's line and pinning the blame solely on one of the victims of Turkey.
Mr O'Brien also seems to forget that, despite its history, Cyprus is one of the few EU members that supports Turkish membership of the EU. It does so, however, with the reasonable proviso that Turkey must abide by international law and end its occupation of Cyprus. - Yours, etc,
Dr MICHAEL PARASKOS,
Cyprus College of Art,
Paphos, Cyprus.