Turkish Journalist: French Vote Is Only A Prelude, Hurricane Coming

From: Mihran Keheyian <mkeheyian@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:22:06 +0400 (AMT)
TURKISH JOURNALIST: FRENCH VOTE IS ONLY A PRELUDE, HURRICANE COMING PanARMENIAN.NetDecember 22, 2011 - 13:24 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand describesthe 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 saysin a piece of opinion published by Hurriyet Daily News. "The French vote is only a prelude. They are preparing to blow likea hurricane in coming years," Birand says. "What do we do? As always, we are trying to prevent what is comingby harsh warning letters and threat-filled statements. We are sendingdelegations to France trying to influence every segment. Next, we willtemporarily withdraw our ambassador and maybe there will be callsto boycott French goods. We will bring forward our significance forEurope, our strategic value, but nothing will change. These methods donot serve their purpose anymore. Moreover, they will be more uselesstoward 2015," he presumes. "Turkey has lost its struggle against the genocide. For almost 100years, first it buried its head in the sand, did not discuss it, ithas even left its own society ignorant. For all those years, it wasnot able make the international community believe that "there was nogenocide." It did not go beyond a total denial. We have missed thattrain," Birand says. "Only bold steps can save us from this accusation. The way to dispersethe genocide wind passes through launching of new "initiatives" thatwill surprise the world public. By publicly apologizing for mutuallosses 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 therea planned operation in Ankara to mitigate the losses of the coming2015 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 moreit will become expensive and cause risky decisions for us to escapefrom 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, wewill withdraw our ambassador," will not work or affect anybody. Theonly way to draw the attention of the world public passes from takingbolder steps," he concludes.