Two correspondents assert on your letters page that Saint George was born in Turkey (The truth about flying the flag of Saint George, 27 August). Insofar as his biography is known, he was born in Cappadocia when it was still part of the undivided Roman empire (as was that part of Britain now called England). The primary language in Cappadocia was then Greek, alongside Persian and Armenian (while Britain’s was Celtic).
The first Turks arrived almost eight centuries later, and its Turkification was a millennium-long process of migration, assimilation and persecution (the Anglo-Saxonification of Britain having been rather more rapid). Which just goes to show that there is nothing new about population movement and cultural change.
Natalie Naïri Quinn
Abingdon
• I was dismayed to see not one but two published letters stating that Saint George was from Turkey. This is akin to stating that “Julius Caesar was from Italy” or that “the prophet Muhammad was from Saudi Arabia”. If we are serious about stopping the far right, we should at least try to be historically and geopolitically accurate.
Fergus Tyrrell
London
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