Why is Turkey in the firing line from both sides in the EU referendum debate?

When did Turkey stop being a place for British holidaymakers to visit for a fortnight each summer and transform into the source of everyone’s worst nightmares?

Turkey is currently the line of attack for every Brexiteer, who would have us believe that nigh on 80 million people are going to flock over the border into your town; a squalid invasion force just waiting to drain public services, radicalise young Muslims and bring crime to our streets.

The concept is deeply flawed.

As a Turk, I am well aware that our country has serious issues which have long hindered its progress towards Europe. It has been 30 years since it began its application and has showed little intention of fulfilling the chapters. Our president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is becoming ever-more autocratic, jailing scores of critical journalists and squeezing out his political opponents. We have been hit hard by terrorism over the last year, with a number of attacks from the Islamic State and Kurdish militants in both Ankara and Istanbul and beyond.

This alone would be enough to prevent Turkey’s accession to the EU, ignoring the fact that not only Britain, but the likes of Cyprus, whose government Turkey still refuses to recognise, has a veto over whether it joins.

The implication that everyone in Turkey is just desperate to leave is false. Turks are deeply attached to their own language, their own customs and have a strong emotional connection to the rugged planes of their homeland.

En masse migration is incredibly unlikely, not least when you consider that its GDP is higher than that of many EU countries. Only around 10 per cent of Turkish citizens have passports, many of them are part of the nation’s diaspora in the UK, the Netherlands, the USA and Germany.

Turkish people rarely holiday outside their own country. Turkey has three beautiful major cities; Istanbul is one of the most enchanting places on the planet, with a huge amount of cultural and historical significance. Further south, on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, legions of tourists visit every year to bask in the beautiful scenery. Among them are two-and-a-half million Brits, who return with happy memories.

The treatment of Turkey has been deeply offensive. Not only is the Leave campaign happy to bandy its name about as if it was the continent’s dirty secret that can no longer be tolerated, but the Remain camp have done nothing to call out this rhetoric for what it is – xenophobic scaremongering. Sadly correct though it may be, David Cameron’s claim that Turkey will not join the EU until the year 3000 only legitimises the treatment of its citizens by the Leavers.

To use a false premise to reduce a nation to a pawn in the Leave campaign’s political endgame is immoral and the British people should ignore the attempts to impugn almost 80 million people.