Mehmet Ali Birand - English

There are a few frequently asked questions these days to which I looked for answers in order to make my readers happy. I talked to experts. I summarized mutual points of different views. * I have a few dollars, what should I do? Sell or keep?

Answers to this question depend on conditions.

1) If you have a considerable amount of dollars and your need for Turkish Lira is growing you might sell it. But sell a moderate amount. Don’t sell all of it. Keep dollars.

2) If you have a limited amount of dollars and you are not in need of Liras, it is better to wait a little longer.

* Would you recommend buying dollars in order to protect the value of my money?

Experts generally recommend not buying immense amounts of foreign exchange these days if not absolutely necessary. This is because the dollar has gained much value and its best to wait a while for a drop.

We need not forget that it is impossible for any one in the world to predict the future of the dollar in a concrete and healthy way.

No one knows anything. Everyone is guessing. Some are rightÉ and some are wrongÉ But everybody takes a guessÉ in such a uncertain environment it’s best to wait.

Not too long ago it was believed that a potential agreement with the IMF would save us. A Turkey clutching at IMF anchor was meant to strengthen its economic management image by evoking trust in local and international markets. Such an agreement was to bring about $25 billion and point to Turkey for those who are looking to invest their money in a safe haven.

But the prime minister virtually wasted our time. If there had been an agreement with the IMF they wouldn’t have been so free to distribute refrigerators, spending would have been limited or inspected and an election economy would not have been exercised. Erdoğan, acting with this in mind, preferred pleasantly sounding propaganda language regarding the IMF stepping on his throat. He will stick to this language until the end of elections. He will say he did not agree with the IMF for our sake. When elections are over the agreement will be signed but votes will be taken and then it will be too late. Potential advantages from the IMF agreement will be lost. Even if Turkey signs the agreement with the IMF today it will not obtain the expected advantages.

It will not calm down markets or prevent the rise of the dollar. It’s too late now.

The prime minster is completely condemned in his political benefits and paved the way for unemployment of hundreds of thousands of people. You’ll see in months ahead unemployment will rise and people will make Erdoğan pay for his mistake. With his attitude Erdoğan treats the Turkish public unfair.

Bravo TÜBİTAK

TÜBİTAK is an institution for science and technology and the country’s pride. It is where people work who believe in positive scienceÉ Apparently it seems that it is no longer the case.

Apparently this institution is no longer led by people who, like Darwin and the Western World, believe humans are derived from a monkey species and developed into today’s form. Instead maybe it is led by Islamic minds that believe science is god given?

The news aired on Kanal D Prime Time and on CNNTürk is scary. UNESCO announced 2009 as the "Darwin Year" because of the 200th birthday of famous scientist Charles Darwin. TÜBİTAK reserved the March cover page of its science and technology magazine "Bilim ve Teknik" for Darwin. But as the magazine was in the printing process the vice president of the institution Professor Ömer Cebeci interfered and eliminated articles regarding Darwin, and dismissed Editor-in-Chief Dr. Çiğdem Atakuman. Unbelievable.What is wrong with TÜBİTAK? Is there any other more obvious sign of politics infecting a scientific institution? Can such an institution be led based on these minds and still provide benefits for the country? What a shame.

Hillary Clinton is an extremely dynamic, cut to the chase and very clear speaking politician. When I was on my way to the interview a thought I’d encounter someone corpulent but before me was a petite women who grew with the energy emitted from her speech. From our perspective the most important point was that Hillary got to know Turkey and stressed cooperation with Turkey.

From this point of view, what was very important were announcements made during the press conference and especially her chat with me on Kanal D Prime News and CNNTürk. To some extent is has become clear how the new U.S. administration perceives Turkey.

In order to explain to you exactly what I mean, I would like to go back and touch on how Turkey was perceived by the West during recent terms.

Developments since the beginning of 2008, and especially when the AKP government started to make changes to the Constitution regarding the liberation of the headscarf at universities, caused a perception slowly signaling an alienation of Turkey from the West. Be it in Washington or different capital cities of Europe, Prime Minister Erdoğan is being evaluated differently compared to the past.

Attention is being drawn to the alienation from the European Union and the shelving of reforms. The increasing spread of opposition to the U.S. and the discourse of Israeli opposition together with the Davos dispute, especially spread by the prime minister, stir criticisms in public. And of course, what is accentuated is the intensification of Islamic values in the Turkish public.

Even if one could not take a hold of it, the press writes that Turkey seems to leave the Western harbor, which it was holding onto tightly.

Amidst the criticism is Prime Minister Erdoğan whose popularity in the country progressively increases. He is a leader who shows brisk reaction once he becomes upset, who fights with the media, who slams the opposition and who is the administration by himself.

This is the atmosphere that Clinton entered.

If you were to pay attention you’d notice that all announcements and new politics of the Obama administration in regard to Turkey aims at three things:

w To regain the heart of the Turkish pubic, balance the increasing opposition to the U.S. and create an impression of a new start.

w Contrary to the Bush administration, instead of characterizing Turkey with slogans such as a moderate Islamic country, to reconnect to the secular democratic Western world in which human rights are put first and to ensure that Ankara does not step out of the American line regarding the Middle East.

w And while doing this managing Erdoğan by not arguing with him, not bothering him and fine tuning the relations together.

Let’s take a look at what Clinton said to me and the public in her announcements regarding these three targets:

w She never criticized Erdoğan. On the contrary, she said she knows him from the past and thinks he is successful.

w She said Turkey’s role in the region continues as is and there will be no problems as long as it supports the American attitude. She further set forth that neither our close connection to Iran and Hamas nor the tension in our relationship to Israel causes any unease to them.

w She said at least this year there won’t be any development regarding the Armenian issue that would agitate Ankara.

w She set forth that they are in agreement and accord with Ankara regarding Iraq and the PKK.

w She did not hide her request for increased need of Turkish military power in Afghanistan.

This means, she exhibited a give and take attitude. She showed Turkey the bait and specified what she would give in return.

After this visit, we might say that winds of the new U.S. administration blow in favor of Turkey. The prime minister will also be able to profit from these winds as long as he does not step over some fine lines like democracy, freedom of the press, secularism and human rights.

Just like a new approach in overall relations, and foremost with Europe, is predicted with the empowerment of the Obama administration, a new brand new page has also been turned in Turkish-American relations. A visit by Obama to Turkey will fine-tune the level of this new relationship.

If there hadn’t been the letter former Chief of General Staff Gen. İsmail Hakkı Karadayı wrote to Milliyet daily’s Taha Akyol, I most likely wouldn’t have written this piece. Since I am offended deeply, I wanted to scream: "What a shame. As though what you have done is not enough, now you are playing the three monkeys..." Especially this doesn’t suit to Karadayı at all. Until today, I have never used the andıç (memos secretly ordered to be collected upon us) case. And I have not thought of it much because I don’t live in the past. I always look to the future. Though I’d been through the worst days of my life, I have no enmity against Gen. Çevik Bir. And perhaps he is regretful today after looking back to see what he had done in the past. And perhaps, he says, "I’d acted foolishly."

Do you know what pissed me off?

A top military commander acts now as if he doesn’t know anything about the memo incident. Even a person who doesn’t know much about how the Turkish General Staff functions knows that such a first order planning cannot be done outside the chief’s knowledge.

If Mr. Karadayı wonders, let me tell who does such work É The Secretary General Erol Özkasnak of the period in a speech he delivered at the funeral ceremony of a colonel said in front of the cameras, "Traitors like Cengiz Çandar and Mehmet Ali Birand are living among us." I sent a wire of complaint; he screamed out at me and said "How dare you to send a wire to the chief of General Staff?" I lost control and said, "Who do you think you are?" then threw the phone in my hand to the wall and crushed it into pieces. What if I tell you that the same person repeatedly called Erol Aksoy, then the owner of the Show TV, told him, "I am calling on behalf of my commander. We don’t want to see Mehmet Ali Birand’s program the ’32nd Day’ on the screen." Aksoy is still around. Ask him, he will tell you all about.

The person whom Özkasnak referred as "my commander" was the 2nd Chief of General Staff Çevik Bir. Do you want some more witnesses? Ask Zafer Mutlu, editor-in-chief of the daily Sabah at that period. Ask Fatih Çekirge, Ankara bureau chief of the daily Sabah at the time. They will tell you who said what.

I have kept ignoring for 10 years, but that’s enough indeed. Ten years have passed and none of the chiefs of the General Staff was polite enough to express an apology. As if what had happened were so natural and as if all could’ve been done again if needed. All turned a blind eye on the memo incident.

And now it’s being discussed who issued the order then. That’s enough.

You should at least admit that you made a mistake then.I expected of Karadayı to do this much. He, as a mature and elderly commander, could’ve closed the old pages. Even if he has not done it, has the chief of today not thought about it? Wouldn’t it be nice of the current Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ to talk about this unfortunate incident and apologize from all the aggrieved and to tell that some mistakes had been made? Such a gesture doesn’t lower the Turkish Armed Forces, or TSK, if not makes it greater.

A short time ago I wrote about how proud I was of Turkish Airlines, or THY. Hundreds thousands of people thought the same way. The institution became a shining star. THY broke records in succession, it expanded its fleet constantly and was closing each year with a profit while everybody else encountered losses. And especially its promissory commercial with Kevin Costner in which everybody flying THY would "feel like a star" was very striking.

Then all of a sudden everything was spoiled.

If you read the preliminary announcement for the cause of the THY plane crash you will immediately understand that there is not only one reason.

There are many reasons. However the foundation for all this lies in the mentality and education. As Uğur Cebeci also underlines, the pilots did not fastidiously watch the defect in the altitude device and did not react to reports about former defects. In two of eight flights, the same problems were encountered but were not detected during ground services. Don’t these facts show a lack of discipline in pilot and maintenance training?

Ok. Let’s not look at one particular event and humiliate THY. But air transportation is a means that does not accept any mistake. One little mistake is paid for with lives. Therefore, isn’t it our right to expect the institution to detect its deficiencies and fix them?

Rather than ignoring and trying to cover up the secretary of transportation and the general manager of THY Temel Kotil should deal with it. This event has also shown us another reality. It once more set forth why we need to carry Turkey to Europe. We saw European Holland on one side. Right after the crash the European mentality made sure that the crash site was taken under security, all those who had no business there were kept away, no names were announced before the families of the deceased were informed, extremely fastidious investigations were conducted and no explanations made before concrete data was obtained.

On the other side, on the contrary, if a similar accident happens in Turkey the event is depicted based on gossip, everyone enters the site and every possible scenario is illustrated as if it was reality. This is Turkey outside of Europe. What we want is a Turkey that thinks and works as fastidious or serious like a European, and if need be speaks loudly based on correct data. Which Turkey would you prefer?

Only TÜSİAD speaks

I don’t know but did you notice?

The world experiences after shocks of the crises, the US and Europe are still shaking, it’s only us who don’t care.

What matters for us are only local elections.

The country’s prime minister goes to rallies and holds forth, and gives everybody, foremost the opposition, a piece of his mind. Nobody speaks about reasons for a delay in an agreement with the IMF. Nobody argues about what we might encounter if there is no agreement.

We openly feel the earthquake approaching. We have a government that seems to be dreaming and because immense insolvencies have not been encountered yet it behaves as if the crisis will be "tangential" to Turkey; still nobody speaks out loud. In fact, nobody dares to speak out loud. Businessmen are in fear.

The penalty imposed on Aydın Doğan scars everybody. I talked to many businessmen who said: "You all see what they did to a famous person like Aydın Doğan. They’ll do it to us all the more. On top of that they set the treasury in motion so no one has a word to say. These auditors will find something the moment they enter the door. Check it out, the auditor can impose a penalty by saying I don’t interpret the law like this."

They say: "I don’t want to get in trouble" and keep quiet.

If I look around, there is only Arzuhan Yalçındağ who goes from door to door and tries to warn people. She says that the crisis has arrived. She draws attention to the importance of the agreement with the IMF. She criticizes the government for not moving a muscle.

It is unbelievable.

The government ignores unemployment of hundreds of thousands of people at the cost of increasing votes in local elections. This situation will last three more weeks. They will continue ignoring the unemployed and punish those who criticize.

What will happen next?

What will this government tell those hundreds of thousands of unemployed people?

How will it excuse itself?

Don’t worry. "The reason for the crisis is not us, it’s the Americans," they will say and try to get away with it. But in the end they will be caught and punished. Maybe until general elections in 2011 it will be too late and no one will be able to relieve the pain of the unemployed but the AKP will pay for their attitude beyond measure.

We are a weird society, that’s what we are. We believe that if we talk about our thoughts or what goes through our minds these will pass on to others and come back at us one day. One obvious example we encounter is the use of the word Kurd. For years we tried not to use the word Kurd.

We feared if we used the word Kurd some people would remember they were Kurdish. We couldn’t comprehend that even if we did not use the word Kurd and tried to make them forget they still would not give up their Kurdish identity. As a matter of fact, even though so many years have passed, we see today that nobody forgot about their Kurdish identity but only deceived us. They pretended to have forgotten. Nowadays almost the same goes for the word Kurdistan. Our tongues do not allow us to pronounce this word. Even if this word is used in a geographical way and even if it used to be called that during the Ottoman Empire we keep our distance from this word.

We have a hidden fear inside us. We are concerned that if we use this word someday there will be a Kurdistan established in some part of our country. For a substantial part of our society this is a valid fear. Thus we constantly call it northern Iraq. We justify ourselves by saying "We respect Iraq’s territorial integrity and call it that because we want to show that we oppose the Kurd’s wish for independence."

In contrast, the Iraqi Constitution states it as the "Iraqi Kurdistan Autonomous Region." A similar definition is present in Iran. This means that Iraq and Iran have no such worries. But we have not been able to get rid of our suspicions. In a place where weapons speak, conventional wisdom subsides. The resistance in Turkish society is based on just this impetus. But as we develop our relationship with Barzani it will be easier to be rid of this concern.


Opening a consulate general in Arbil

Foremost northern Iraq needs to be recognized and be held in esteem. By recognition I mean not a formal state recognition. For Kurdistan is not an independent state. I am talking about accepting their presence and not ignoring them.

Turkey has improved its relations with Iraqi Kurds substantially compared to former years. There is no hostile statement or approach anymore. On the contrary, tiny messages are sent. Symbolic steps are taken. The "reality" of Iraqi Kurds is more widely accepted. If once upon a time in the region Turkey had considered the proposal to using the Turkish Lira in the region, deepened relations with those whom it despised as a "tribe" and had been mature and wise enough to behave like a "big brother", then this historical opportunity would not have passed. Now steps are being taken in that direction. More importantly, the National Security Council, or MGK, has now decided to improve economic relations with northern Iraq. This was a first. This was taken as a sign of the Turkish Armed Forces changing its stiff attitude.

The right thing is being done.

If these steps persist and Barzani reciprocates, then the last big step will be the opening of a consulate general in Arbil.

For now, consul generals are sent to other places in Iraq whereas northern Iraq, which is more important for us, is being watched from a distance. This would be an important step in pulling Barzani more to our side. The Kurds know that in the long run in the region Turkey is the only country that will extend a helping hand. You see, as the central government in Baghdad strengthens, the relationship between Arabs and Kurds is slowly getting tense.

Barzani's complaints

Events lived through since recent elections signal that Kurds won’t easily achieve what they want or be at ease anymore. The United States, too, does not treat the Kurds as before. Each of Barzani’s demands is no longer met. It seems that the Kurd’s comfort will, with the withdrawal of the US forces from the country in 2010, be completely disturbed.

In such an environment there will even be more importance attached to Turkey’s role.

Turkey will strengthen even further to such an extent as it can be the patron of its own Kurds and the Kurds in the region, and be in a position to more effectively fight against the PKK terror. Our star will shine proportionally to our ability to notice and accomplish what is necessary. Outer forces will then stop winking at the PKK. If we can only see the reality and take steps bravely.

It seems like yesterday... Ten years have past since Öcalan was captured in Kenya. I’m sure you will remember. We first were astonished and could hardly believe it when Prime Minister Ecevit announced that Öcalan had been brought to Turkey. Within the past 10 years many articles, even books have been written on the period Öcalan left Syria and was captured. Developments were picked to pieces for detail. But publications in the 10th anniversary of his capture provide us with new information. We examine developments in a healthier way and, more importantly, obtain correct and better data.

Rıdvan Akar’s documentary aired on the program 32.Gün, Nur Batur’s series of articles in the daily Sabah and Hulusi Turgut’s narrative on Öcalan’s conveyance to Turkey in the daily Hürriyet are a treasure chest of information.

What I’m closely watching is Greece’s role in this event. Athens governments have used Öcalan for years. They protected the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. A Kurdish lobby had been established. Governments even created funds for such activities. And a section of society consisting of retired military personnel or people who are enemies of Turks, excluding authorities, have rolled up their sleeves to use this money and take advantage of the prestige of activity against Turkey. They have offered important support ranging from visiting Öcalan, to training the PKK, to even receiving with open arms PKK refugees who fled Turkey to a camp called Lavrion near Athens.

Nur Batur’s series is very important, for she bases it on memoranda from the court that tried him for "The offense of entering Greece without a visa." There it is obvious that Öcalan’s biggest mistake was to believe his Greek friends.

The same memoranda also states that the Greeks were split in two.

On one side there was Prime Minister Simitis and those who thought like him, namely to get rid of the Öcalan problem, and on the other side there were those who wanted to use Öcalan against Turkey. In the end common sense won and the Öcalan lobby was wiped out.

I was always curious about Pangalos’s role in Öcalan’s capturing. And I repeatedly talked to him.

He says that his biggest mistake was to tolerate Öcalan’s stay at the Greek embassy in Kenya for a few days because it was planned that Öcalan would stay at a huge farm in South Africa owned by a South African of Greek origin; however, they could not obtain it so he had to stay in Kenya for a few days. According to Pangalos, Öcalan’s place of stay was identified because U.S. sympathizers in the Greek intelligence service sent reports to Washington. Whoever did what, he did the best. If Simitis was not in the seat of power there wouldn’t be winds of peace blowing in the Aegean today.


MİT traced Öcalan through informant

Two institutions played a very important role in delivering Öcalan to Turkey.

One of them was the Turkish National Intelligence Organization, or MİT, and the other the CIA.

Nobody in Ankara should expect credit for this. The MİT chased Öcalan step by step from the moment he left Syria and was delivered in Kenya. It knew every place where Öcalan had been. Neither the CIA nor any other intelligence service (especially the Israelis) could get ahead of the MİT.

The foremost reason for this was that there had been an MİT informant within the PKK. I don’t know if you read about it anywhere else. Maybe you are hearing it the first time but this informant who followed Öcalan’s steps and actions closely provided an incredible advantage.

Despite the fact that the CIA knew and mumbled about it, Washington was surprised to hear some information first hand from the MİT representative.

American superiority in Öcalan’s pursuit derived from an FBI agent at the Nairobi airport. The agent became suspicious about Öcalan being taken out of a side door and followed him. When he took a picture and sent it to Washington he raised hell.

You might ask: "What business does the agent have being there?"

During that time a huge assassination attempt was made on an American at the Nairobi airport and the Kenyan government allowed the FBI to monitor the airport. Öcalan got caught in this web. But again the first to find out where Öcalan was staying in Nairobi was MİT.

It all has to do with technical follow-up.

The delivery of Öcalan to Turkey was totally based on a decision made by former President Clinton.

The U.S. administration pressured Greece to expel Öcalan from the embassy in Nairobi and ensured the delivery of the PKK leader to air craft sent by the Turkish MİT after making a deal with the Kenyan government. If Washington had decided otherwise Öcalan would still be living some place else.

I have wanted to write about it for a long time but only got a chance today. I attach importance to Deniz Baykal’s Brussels visit and the newly opened office in the heart of the European Union. Most of all I attach importance to the Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s, approach to the EU. For looking at former developments we often notice that negotiations were conducted by conservative parties but agreements concluded and signed by social democrats. Don’t be surprised if the CHP leads and signs the full membership agreement in this phase.

In past years what surprised the part of society that attaches importance to our EU relations was that some CHP members spoke like opponents of the EU. But it is impossible for the CHP to be an EU opponent.

Europe means freedom of thought.

Europe means respect for human rights.

Europe means defending employee rights.

Europe means equality among humans.

Europe is a temple for social democrats, so to speak. The strongest defendants of the EU idea are almost always social democrats in every country.

If we take a look at CHP’s past we will notice that they always supported our path to Europe. From İnönü to Baykal, the CHP has always been in the front during this process. As a matter of fact, reforms between 2000 and 2004 have been made with the help of the CHP. It is difficult to think that the same CHP would oppose the EU at the cost of just opposing the Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

On the contrary, instead of accusing the AKP of "slow movement" and exercising pressure, an attitude of opposing the EU has made the party lose points.

That’s what the opposition does, so what does the government do?

An interesting mobilization has started regarding the EU project. I wanted to share my impressions obtained from Ankara’s atmosphere. Naturally no one expects any action before local elections. Actually this is not a preferable situation. For Egemen Bağış wants three topics to be discussed, not two as accustomed to during the European community presidency of the Czechs. And it’s been said openly. And a gesture of goodwill is expected.

However, even two topics are at stake, not to speak of three. The reason is that the Czech presidency period ends in June and steps regarding "opening criteria" for topics to be opened until today have not been taken yet. Especially with local elections at the end of March technical preparations will be delayed further. And when preparations start in April it will be hard to be ready by June. Then the Czech period will be over without opening any topics.

According to information obtained from those close to the prime minister, they will try to accelerate developments regarding our path to the EU in two different areas besides the classical negotiation period.

The prime minister believes that there are two side factors on which it depends for Turkey to be noticed by Europe. The first factor is energy and the second is to become effective in the Middle East. The Nabucco project all of a sudden increased Turkey’s prestige in countries of the EU. It is one of the preferences of the EU not to depend on Russian gas and meet energy needs through other resources. Because the EU was scared about Moscow’s attitude regarding the Russia-Ukraine dispute, the Nabucco project all of a sudden came into prominence. The realization of the Nabucco project depends on the agreement with Turkey. Negotiations in this matter still continue.

The other factor is Turkey’s role in the Middle East. Foremost France, countries of the EU have discovered the importance of Ankara in relations with Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah. Eyes are often turned to Ankara. Prime Minister Erdoğan believes that if there is progress in these two matters then Turkey’s accession period to the EU will accelerate.

I’m not sure about the result of this evaluation but I don’t want to give up hope thinking that the prime minister would know something.

EU: Know how to pay for it as you spend

A reality that potential EU members like very much is "Europe always protects and looks out for its members and does not sacrifice them to an economic crisis." Meaning they believed that "solidarity" would come first. This security underwent an important test and the 27ers failed.

The nine new countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia) are aground. As soon as they obtained full membership, economic reforms accelerated but at the same time they ran into a 1.7 trillion euro debt. Within this year they are obligated to pay 400 billion euros. If there was not a crisis, this amount would easily be paid, but now it has created a big problem. In fact there is no money and European banks issued the debt. So in the end, not only nine countries, but financials of many countries, foremost Austrian and Italian banks will be in trouble.

During the weekend the 27ers met in Brussels. The nine new siblings told about their situation and asked for 180 billion euros in support in the first phase for the sake of "solidarity."

The crisis is impacting everybody so much that there was no response. They said, "You should have planned more carefully. You are bankrupt because you made unnecessary spending. We too are in a difficult situation. There is no money. The crisis is serious" and thus the discussion was over.

For the first time solidarity received a huge strike.

Of course, we need not think that these nine countries will be abandoned to their fate. There will be new steps depending on the situation. But old applications will cease. Those who spend will look at their own accounts. If solidarity is ignored and Europe cannot operate its strongest protection mechanism then countries that wait in line like Turkey will be forced to reevaluate their attitudes.

It never happened and I don’t see any possibility for it to happen. There is no effort to compromise, much less a solution. Even thinking, "Can we reach a compromise?" creates great reactions. Without going into detail, let’s look at some basic subjects and you’ll understand what I’m trying to say. The secularist-pious attitude that splits the society. The Turkish-Kurdish dispute filled with a danger of civil war.

The great tension regarding the independence, European Union and Western camp É Who represents the state? The military or Parliament, which we elected?

We are not able to reach a consensus on these subjects.

We couldn’t in the past. Some of us were on the left wing some on the right. We were wounded by intolerance regarding a consensus in democracy and diversity. Now concepts and attitudes have changed. We have not abandoned polarization, for, with various world views there is a huge gap between beliefs that is impossible to bridge. At least our generation did not manage to do it. We have created such fears and adapted to them we have become their victims. The worst part of it is that as years pass we don’t even believe that people change; on the contrary, we stir up these fears. Let’s take a look at the secularist-pious fight.

Perspectives are so different that no dispute can be made without being followed by a fight.

Each step taken in the name of piousness is viewed as a game of those who want to bring sharia laws to Turkey. We possess such deep doubts that we don’t trust anyone. We don’t even wait until the opposite is proven.

We perceived secularism totally different. We perceived it as a mile stone in our lifestyle. Of course, examples from the past, especially the Islamic revolution in Iran and the Erbakan term has stirred these doubts and worries. We imagined everything on our own. But while doing this we have exaggerated.

Remember, when Özal came to power, we first accused Motherland Party, or ANAP, of "those with wooden sandals having started an Islamization operation of the country." Even further, when Özal applied for full membership in the EU, Çoskun Kırca a foremost actor of the secularist front who thought this was a game persistently pursued his theory; "We know we will be declined. He only applied, so Europe can deny us and Turkey can be easily carried into the Islamic world." He branded Özal with wooden sandals and we could not tolerate it.

Today we are craving for it. To tell the truth, it is important to take steps in order to cease worries. For example, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s, "opening up" is important in this regard. To prove that this is not a political maneuver, undergoing a sincerity test would be a historical step. But no matter what the CHP does it is not trusted and is encountered with doubt. As you see, we failed. Maybe the next generations will get closer.

Same solid attitude toward the Kurdish issue

The Kurdish issue is another example of mistrust mutually felt by two different worlds.

This time it’s not the secular-pious issue but the different views regarding what will be best for Turkey and carry it to a healthier democracy.

On one hand we have great fears: The West split the Ottomans and now wants to split Turkey. In the name of democracy, for the sake of the EU and in the name of conforming international agreements and respect for human rights, they play around with the Kurdish issue.

Was the chicken first or the egg, or vice versa?

The answer to this question is our biggest dead end. With the fear of splitting in the back of our minds we are unable to see democracy or human rights.

Again education given to our generation has brought into prominence the "fear of a split and the indispensability of independence." These values are stuck in our minds. Even if the world changes we haven’t. But I do underline that independence is an indispensible value and continues as such. But what we have not been taught is the experience of diversity and cultivated democracy. The real solution was here. However we cannot say that we gave it a chance.

When we squeezed the Kurdish in such a tight frame, we arrived at a point where we could not find a solution. Fifteen or 20 years ago we could have solved this problem easily but today because of our bigotry it has come to a point where we cannot find a way out.


The military

Fear of "splitting" and "political reaction" penetrated us so deeply that we perceived the military as security since the early years of the Republic. We entrusted it with the duty of "protecting the state from splitting and political reaction because you are the state." A survey conducted by Konda called, "Who are we?" shows that even today 48 percent of 7,000 respondents approve of a military coup.

As a result we trained officers accordingly. And they in return adapted to this role fastidiously. With the influence of the secular part of society and their own criteria, the military made three military coups. Each intervention caused deep wounds in democracy.

Despite the closing of military coup terms we still do not leave the country in hands of the elected ones. We still push the military.

In summary, our generation does not tolerate change.

It did not look for a compromise.

It did not try to understand others.

I wonder if generations after us will be able to compromise. Yes you’ll see, in the end the wish of the majority will prevail. A mutual balance and compromise will be reached.

Ali Kalkancı at 32.Gün

The fake sheik of Feb. 28 Ali Kalkancı has been caught. And what’s more, in his factory while producing drugs. When I saw this story for one second I went back in time. I remembered Emire Kalkancı, Fadime Şahin and Müslüm Gündüz, the sheik of a religious sect, called Aczimendi. Afterward it was claimed that this was all cooked up by the "Ergenekon" suspect Veli Küçük. Ali Kalkancı was announced sheik when he was an alcoholic youngster and forced to marry Emire Kalkancı. A later newsflash said, "How a religious sect sheik deceived the daughter of a famous businessman." Guys at www.32gunhaber.com thought the same thing and posted invocation images of Ali Kalkancı in his sect monastery. Those of you who would like to remember those days can take a look.