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Birand Represented Turkish Journalism at Its Best

Cengiz Candar comments on the funeral and career of immortal journalist Mehmet Ali Birand.
Armenian worshippers attend Sunday mass in Surp Asdradzadzin Patriarchal Church in Istanbul January 13, 2008. One year after Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink was shot dead, Turkey's Armenian community is torn between hoping for better days in the EU candidate nation and moving abroad out of frustration and fear of more attacks. Picture taken January 13, 2008. To match feature TURKEY-ARMENIANS/ANNIVERSARY  REUTERS/Osman Orsal   (TURKEY)
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Mehmet Ali Birand’s funeral Saturday [Jan. 19] was one of the most crowded that Istanbul has seen in the past half-century.

Like many things in Istanbul, the mosques have their symbolism, too. Take, for example, one of the oldest — the Fatih Mosque, built in the Old City on the shores of the Golden Horn by Mehmed the Conqueror, who took the city in the 15th century and is himself buried there. It hosts funeral prayers for people who represent mostly Turkey’s Ottoman traditions and are generally known for their Islamist or conservative profiles. President Turgut Ozal, for instance, was laid to rest after funeral prayers at that mosque in 1993, in one of the most crowded and grandiose ceremonies that Istanbul has ever seen.

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