Turkish journalist: French vote is only a prelude, hurricane coming

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand describes the Armenian Genocide bill pending vote in the French parliament as 'a signal flare.'

“It is the tip of the iceberg that will hit Turkey in 2015,” he says in a piece of opinion published by Hurriyet Daily News.

“The French vote is only a prelude. They are preparing to blow like a hurricane in coming years,” Birand says.

“What do we do? As always, we are trying to prevent what is coming by harsh warning letters and threat-filled statements. We are sending delegations to France trying to influence every segment. Next, we will temporarily withdraw our ambassador and maybe there will be calls to boycott French goods. We will bring forward our significance for Europe, our strategic value, but nothing will change. These methods do not serve their purpose anymore. Moreover, they will be more useless toward 2015,” he presumes.

“Turkey has lost its struggle against the genocide. For almost 100 years, first it buried its head in the sand, did not discuss it, it has even left its own society ignorant. For all those years, it was not able make the international community believe that “there was no genocide.” It did not go beyond a total denial. We have missed that train,” Birand says.

“Only bold steps can save us from this accusation. The way to disperse the genocide wind passes through launching of new “initiatives” that will surprise the world public. By publicly apologizing for mutual losses and taking those steps to activate relations with Yerevan, we can only hold on to the edge of the genocide cliff. Otherwise, 2015 will very much batter Turkey.” he says.

“A question I am very curious to hear the answer is this: “Is there a planned operation in Ankara to mitigate the losses of the coming 2015 earthquake?” If not, be sure that we will feel the pain immensely. Actually, we are already late, but again, some things can be done. Let’s not forget, the more we postpone taking precautions, the more it will become expensive and cause risky decisions for us to escape from the trap. For once, let’s act like a European, not like a Turk,” Birand advises.

“To counterbalance 2015, threats such as “we will put an embargo, we will withdraw our ambassador,” will not work or affect anybody. The only way to draw the attention of the world public passes from taking bolder steps,” he concludes.