The youthful and highflying years of a person are during his military service era.
It is the same with our paper. The birthday just befits the period when the paper was very impulsive and vied for first place. The ZAMAN staff harmonized with Anatolia, those who have constantly set their hearts to the paper have done their best to make it grow.
The operation reflected on the circulation as well. Our Executive Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanli wrote in Monday's edition that the daily circulation of ZAMAN has reached 450,000 copies and will continue to increase. Reaching the 500,000-mark is no longer a dream.
ZAMAN has unique characteristics that make it different from other papers, but the most striking is the dynamism in newspaper readership relations. The readers receive energy from the paper and the paper receives energy from readers. Happy birthday to the large ZAMAN family together with its sung and unsung heroes all over the world.
At the same time, November 3 is also the anniversary of several other events. The Susurluk accident occurred eight years ago on that day. The indentities of those inside the Mercedes-Benz car have caused many fierce debates since then. People talked alot behind the scenes about what could have brought fugitive nationalist Abdullah Catli, Police Chief Huseyin Kocadag and Deputy Sedat Edip Bucak together in the same car, and also about the secrets of the trio, who ought not to have been together.
The "deep state" organization was mentioned. This was also transferred to the political arena and former True Path Party (DYP) leader Tansu Ciller was connected. Parliamentary commissions were set to decipher the issue. As soon as Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Mesut Yilmaz took over the prime minister seat, he started work on Susurluk at the Prime Ministry.
First Sedat Bucak was acquitted, then the Supreme Court overruled the decision, and he was charged again and submitted to the court some documents from Catli's suitcase, which had earlier been declared missing. Henceforward, Susurluk acquired a military dimension with those documents.
November 3 is also the anniversary of the 2002 [parliamentary] elections. The Parliament profile changes in every election, but no other poll has led to such widespread renewals in recent memory, with the exception of the intervention periods. What changed was not the faces or names but the political structure.
The center-right that consisted of ANAP and DYP was eradicated. The Democratic Left Party (DSP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) were relatively disappointed after being in power for three-and-a-half years. The new political boss was the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which grew up in the Welfare Party (RP) and Felicity Party (FP) tradition, and acquired new quality with the help of other participants. The February 28 process shut down both parties, consecutively. Hence, Recep Tayyip Erdogan established a new party from this debris. Despite all obstacles placed on its way, AKP won a landslide victory on November 3.
As an irony of fate, the U.S. presidential elections also extended to November 3. The elections that began on Tuesday afternoon lasted until the following morning, according to Turkish local time.
This U. S. presidential election, without any doubt, is the most crucial balloting in recent years.
Comments and evaluations all point in this direction. The result of the election will not only affect the United States but also the Middle East geography, in which Turkey is included, and the whole world. The foreign policies of [President George W.] Bush and John Kerry at least have nuance differences.
With the birthday, anniversary and election, November 3 is not just an ordinary day and has a different meaning from all other days within the flow of history.
November 3, 2004
