Well-known Turkish journalist, analyst, and editor Mehmet Ali Birand’s interview, which was aired on CNN Turk, has caused huge reaction in Turkey.    

Reflecting on the Kurdish issue, Birand said he is a turkified Kurd yet he understands the problems of the Kurds very well.  

“Sometimes they say I am Armenian, but I am not Armenian. [But] If I were an Armenian, I would have been proud of that,” he noted. 

During the television program, Mehmet Ali Birand made another scandalous remark arguing that general amnesty should be declared in Turkey and PKK—that is, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party—leader Abdullah Ocalan must be released from prison.