Your editorial, “ >Erdoðan should talk Turkey ” (February 11, 2013) was most disappointing. Patriot missiles are intended to prevent recurrence of civilian deaths on the Turkish side of the border under attacks from Syrian forces. Turkey does not call for foreign military intervention and has shown full restraint when its unarmed plane was shot in international airspace. No country can claim to try more than Turkey in advocating a speedy end to the ongoing bloodshed by a compromise that would be acceptable to the Syrian people. The editorial also seeks to counsel a democratically elected leader who won his third consecutive election by a landslide to respond to “significant sections of [the] people” that you carelessly associate with the terrorists. Just imagine the patronising advice the world may offer to the victims after every terrorist attack in any geography. What is, however, most bothersome, is that the editorial does not even mention the 180,000 and increasing number of Syrians who took shelter in Turkey. Much more meritorious use could have been made of The Hindu ’s space by calling for assistance to these victims whose only “fault” is not having been born in a democratic country like India or Turkey.
Burak Akçapar,
Ambassador of Turkey,
New Delhi
