Let us not fall into the Middle East pit

Let us not return to medieval barbarism

The attack launched by Hamas on Israel, bodies dragged on the ground, naked women, rapes, violence…

The retaliation carried out against Palestine in Gaza, the bombings that turned the surroundings into a bloodbath, wounded children struck dumb by fear, the dead, the wounded, the helplessness…

In this terrible environment, where we can no longer even bear to look at the images, we are all facing our own internal test of humanity…

Politics is not our business; what happened before, who challenged whom, who warned whom and when, who did this and therefore the other did that—these are not our issues.

By 'us', I mean ordinary people; you, me, them, our children, our youth, our soldiers, our women, and our men…

Our issue should be to correctly adjust the lens of our conscience and humanitarian perspective.

The Palestinian people are not bad people who deserve to be punished for what Hamas has done, nor are the Israeli people bad people who deserve to be punished for the decisions Netanyahu has made. We do not have to take sides or become hooligans. Regardless of what happens, hundreds of innocent people have been slaughtered on both sides and continue to be killed. War crimes are being committed.

If everyone closes their eyes to the fact that a massacre similar to the Srebrenica massacre, which lasted 11 days in the heart of the Balkans just 28 years ago, is being carried out in another country today, we should fear that the world will return to those dark, barbaric days of the Middle Ages.

If there is something more dangerous than a contagious disease, it is contagious monstrosity. War turns even the most ordinary person into a monster. History is full of examples of this. Watch documentaries about Nazi Germany, listen to people who have seen war; their common language describes how ordinary people begin to act with monstrous feelings in a short time, and how this grows like an avalanche, turning into unstoppable madness. Ordinary people like us… Ordinary people who inform on their neighbors and cause them unimaginable harm…

Once a person is tainted by evil…

In such critical and dangerous moments, one must not throw stones at the police with paving stones, one must not be part of the madness of thinking oneself powerful by organizing, one must not feed some to others, and one must not target anyone.

While we stand against the turning of Palestine into hell and the slaughter of innocent people, and express our rebellion, we must also protect our Jewish citizens and neighbors living in our country. Our neighbors are not Israeli citizens; they are “citizens of the Republic of Turkey” who have lived here for years, and this should not be forgotten. We will not be on the side that uses rhetoric to incite people.

A person shows their character not only by what they do, but also by what they do not do. Our level of humanity is determined in such times.

The attitudes of countries and peoples determine how they will go down in history.

In our history, we have Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, whom we take as an example and whose attitude on this matter surprised even his enemies.

We are the people of a leader who did not step on the flag of the country he fought against with all his might, who said “they are not our teachers” when those around him said “they raped our women,” a gentlemanly and noble leader, and most importantly, a leader with a strong humanitarian side.

We are always in favor of brotherhood.

All citizens living under the flag of this country, who do not harbor ill intentions against the integrity of the state, are brothers and sisters in equal measure.

What makes us brothers and sisters is not language, religion, or color, but the intention to live together in peace within us.

Of course, we do not say let us show tolerance to those with bad intentions, but let that be the subject of another article.

Today, we should not remain silent when the innocent suffer alongside the guilty.

It would be a great mistake to cling to the common denominator of being Muslim and allow our scales to weigh incorrectly.

If we look at it from this perspective, when countless of our citizens died in the earthquake, which Muslim country respected our mourning and declared a national day of mourning in their country?

If a day of mourning is to be declared, our criterion should be 'humanity', not religion.

When a 'life' is at stake, what faith can be superior to the life of a human or an animal?

Our country did not remain indifferent to this humanitarian tragedy and declared three days of mourning. I want to believe that it was declared because “many people” died.

We hope that this madness happening in the Middle East, this barbarism that does not suit our age at all, will end as soon as possible without further loss of life.

I am also very afraid that this mourning process will be extended and cast a shadow over the 100th-anniversary celebrations of the republic, because this is our most rightful and sacred joy… Look at how sacred the land is, how much blood is shed for it. We paid the price for these lands not with money, but with the blood of martyrs.

Peace at home, peace in the world