Fethullah Gülen’s message of condolence for veteran journalist Mehmet Ali Birand

Mehmet Ali Birand
Mehmet Ali Birand


Date posted: January 19, 2013

Chairman of the Kanal D News Group and veteran journalist Mehmet Ali Birand, who advocated more freedoms and democracy in Turkey during a career spanning 48 years, has died. He was 71.Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen expressed his condolences in a statement he released on Thursday night, describing Birand an exemplary journalist who didn’t compromise his democratic behavior despite all hardship and pressure.

Gülen recognized Birand’s contribution in training valuable journalists and said he was respectful towards people’s faith.

Birand began his career with the Milliyet daily in 1964 but became better known for a series of interviews and documentaries produced in the 1980s. His books on Turkey’s EU membership bid, its military and its intervention in Cyprus were translated into several languages.

Birand was among a number of liberal journalists who were fired by their bosses in 1997 under pressure from the military, which also toppled a pro-Islamic government.

Birand’s program “32. Gün” (32nd Day) became a brand name in news broadcasting in the 1980s and trained many well-known TV journalists in Turkey.

He also witnessed several key political developments abroad and at home, including military coups, and he received harsh criticism from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) for his stance on the Kurdish issue in the 1990s.

Birand likewise drew ire from secular circles when he confessed that most Turkish seculars had been happy to see a military intervention on Feb. 28, 1997, rather than live under a government led by a conservative party.

Source: Summarized from Today’s Zaman January 17, 2013

Tags: | | |


Related News

Nigeria: Hizmet Movement not terrorists

The Concerned African Youth against Tyranny (CAYAT) has denied report that the Fethullah Gulen Movement and Hizmet Movement are terrorist groups. National Coordinator of the organisation, Mr. Musa Shaba said yesterday in Abuja that contrary to claims by the Turkish government the movement has become the face of Turkey in Nigeria and Africa.

The Erdoğan mafia

Turkey is now run by a mafia. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is at the top of this organization. He has created parallel financial, social, religious and legal structures to maintain this mafia organization.

The Islamic roots of the conflict in Turkey

he roots of the Gülen movement go back to Said Nursi (1878-1960), a preacher from Eastern Anatolia whose teachings (the Nurcu movement) emphasized the compatibility of Islam with rationalism, science and positivism. Nursi’s main contribution to Islam was a 6,000-page commentary he wrote on the Quran. This body of work is known as the “Risale-i Nur” (The Light Collection) and advocates the teaching of modern sciences in religious schools as the way of the future for an Islamic age of enlightenment.

No evidence Gulen movement is guilty of subversive activities

The suggestion that Mr Gulen intends to create a new religious political order in Turkey is untrue. He has spoken against political Islam and has always supported a democratic system. In one of his speeches, he explained: “Islam does not propose a certain unchangeable form of government or attempt to shape it.

Turkey’s Erdogan Is Already Making the Most of His ‘Gift From Heaven’ After Coup Attempt

Erdogan is establishing the regime he wants even if the constitution is not amended, a regime that ensures complete loyalty, whether out of support for him or out of fear he is instilling in tens of thousands of government officials, hundreds of thousands of teachers, thousands of judges and prosecutors and army officers. The shakeup in the education system is perhaps the most significant, even more than in the justice system or the army.

Arınç says Gülen’s offer to hand over prep schools ‘sacrifice’

Turkish Deputy PM Bülent Arınç has described the offer of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen to hand over prep school management to the state an example of “sacrifice” and promised that the issue of prep schools will be resolved in a way that pleases everyone. “God knows that we don’t have an ambition to manage [these prep schools]; our desire is that these services don’t become the causalities of a disagreement,” Gülen reportedly said.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Fethullah Gülen: ‘I Call For An International Investigation Into The Failed Putsch In Turkey’

65-year-old grandmother looking after twin babies as mother, father in jail for 5 months

Clash of two Islams in Turkey

Shining Turkish schools cement Iraq’s social unity

Gülen Movement: An Alternative to Fundamentalism

Fethullah Gülen strongly condemns US consulate attack, extends condolences

A peace and dialogue conference in Kyrgyzstan

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News