Mehmet Ali Birand

Articles de cet auteur (24)

Darkening our future for the sake of the turban
4 April 2008

I felt sad as I read the prime minister’s speech addressed to the students in Bosnia Herzegovina. Drawing attention to the reluctance of European Union countries to include Turkey among them, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey would lose nothing by not joining the EU. What a pity… Our situation is tragic indeed if the prime minister really believes that. Let’s begin by assessing the EU situation. Only five of the EU countries (France, Germany, Netherlands, (...)
Get ready for a completely transformed Turkey
18 February 2008

Even the Justice and Development Party (AKP) hadn’t expected to get 46.6% of the votes. Everybody was shocked. The real meaning of this result wasn’t realized until later.
In the speech he made the night of the elections, the PM even stressed that “he would embrace everyone, including those who had concerns and would opt for reconciliatory policies.” Most probably, even he had been caught by surprise. In fact, he later took such steps that reconciliation and “the embracing of the concerned” (...)
Le courage de Karamanlis
4 février 2008

C’est la première visite officielle d’un Premier ministre grec en Turquie depuis quarante-neuf ans. Je tiens à féliciter Karamanlis pour son courage, étant bien conscient de sa position dans la vie politique grecque. Karamanlis a tenu la promesse faite à Erdoğan, malgré le risque de sévères critiques de la part de son opposition.
La visite du Premier ministre grec Costas Karamanlis est importante à tous points de vue. Cependant, ce qui la rend encore plus significative, c’est le courage ainsi (...)
Kurdish question : it’s time to take courageous steps
11 January 2008

It’s already been said and written so many times, but I’d still like to repeat it once again. The state has gained a psychological advantage over PKK terrorism. Now is the time to show the courage to take important steps. If we continue as we used to, forget all that’s happened and fail to take the required decisions, everything we’ve accomplished will go down the drain.
It hasn’t been easy to reach this point. Let’s not forget that it took us two years of efforts to get Washington to change (...)
How many Kurdish uprisings till today?
7 January 2008

We are only beginning to learn about our relations with our citizens of Kurdish origins. We had never been allowed to learn or talk about them before. The other day, a reader sent me a list of all the Kurdish uprisings that occurred since Ottoman times to the present. Apparently, our history is full of them.
I won’t give his name, for he doesn’t want me to, so I’ll only say that he’s a retired soldier. I understand that he used the general staff archives to compile a striking list of all the (...)
As Sarkozy pushes Turkey away...
21 December 2007

The general belief was that he would grow more flexible after the election. What happened is just the opposite, however. The French president’s harsh attitude toward Turkey continues. In fact, his efforts to block Turkey’s EU membership resume their former intensity.
If this tendency doesn’t change, it will be impossible to develop the relations between Turkey and France. France couldn’t possibly keep its place in our hearts as long as Sarkozy continues to block Turkey’s way to the EU. (...)
Europe’s Turkey report is balanced and constructive
14 November 2007

The Iraq issue has invaded our daily life to such extent that we weren’t able to attach sufficient importance to the European Union Commission’s Progress Report. Yet this was the first balanced and constructive EU report with a pro-Turkey attitude. The negative points mentioned in this report only echo the criticisms voiced by several institutions and reported by the media within the country itself.
In other words, there’s nothing negative that we haven’t heard before. The only novelty exists (...)
Sarkozy’s interesting message on Turkey
11 September 2007

France is not changing its basic point of view, but adopts a more flexible general attitude. It brings forward its relationships with Turkey and suggests a new formula.
We were so involved in our own affairs last week that we paid no attention to external developments. We were busy discussing who was or wasn’t at which reception and which general didn’t salute whom. We almost became body language experts. Yet there were important developments in Turkish-French relations. French President (...)
Turquie - Elections : l’UE, sujet tabou
7 avril 2007

© Marillac et Turquie Européenne pour la traduction
© Milliyet, mars 2007
Réputé comme un parti islamiste en Europe, l’AKP aurait le projet européen pour spécificité, nous dit Mehmet Ali Birand, l’un des plus célèbres éditorialistes de Turquie. Or, aujourd’hui, à l’approche des élections en Turquie, les dirigeants de ce parti semblent, comme de nombreux autres sur le continent, bien incapables d’en articuler les promesses et les projets… Pourquoi ?
L’élément qui différencie le plus l’AKP (Parti de la (...)
A new mark on Nevruz
28 March 2007

Source : TDN, 23/03/2007
This year’s Nevruz celebrations went very differently than in previous years. It was full of signs that some things have changed, that a new era has started.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was seen at the forefronts in previous years. It would organize demonstrations; it would determine where attacks on security forces would take place. Nevruz would become an event during which the PKK would show off its influence on the people of the region and prove its (...)