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There is much to justify Turkey's reverence for Ataturk. He is the force that allowed Turkey to rise from the ashes of defeat and emerge as a vibrant new nation.

I see Turkey's future as being in Europe, as one of many prosperous, tolerant, democratic countries.

Ataturk approved of the mevlevi dervish approach to God as being 'an expression of Turkish genius' that reclaimed Islam from what he saw as hide-bound, backward Arab tradition.

Turkey is widely envied while there are very serious troubles in the world economy.

Bear in mind how valuable a secular Turkey is for the world.

Turkey has never been colonized, so it remained as an independent nation after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Turning away Turkey from the EU would be a great, long-term - a century-long - error by Europe.

No Muslim country has ever done as much as Turkey to make itself over in the image of a European nation-state; the country's westernised elite brutally imposed secularism, among other things, on its devout population of peasants.

Turkey is going through an incredible economic, political and social transformation. What is most important is that Turkey has been the owner of this transformation. Ownership has been the key to success.

The West has the wrong perception about Turkey itself.