April 29, 2012

Anatolian Tigers drive Turkey's silent revolution

Atul Aneja

The Anatolian Tigers — a new breed of pious businessmen who have risen from the grassroots to fire Turkey's economic and political transformation — are targeting an entry into the high-technology big league.

The day Erol Özkasnak made me break my phone

Mehmet Ali Birand

Mehmet Ali Birand
I cannot remember the exact date, but the Feb. 28, 1997 incidents had not begun yet and the historic process of punishment under the memorandum dated 1998 had not begun either. Despite that, I was in constant friction with the General Staff.

It was 1996, and the Kurdish issue was at its most violent stage. The General Staff was pressuring me on two topics. One was that I was not criticizing the Fethullah Gülen movement, but on the contrary, I was supporting their schools. The other was that I was opposing the official policy on the Kurdish issue.