Lives turned to ash...

We haven't been ourselves since Tuesday. In fact, as a country, we haven't been ourselves for a long time. We have experienced so many terrible events in such a short time, one after another... While the scars of the February 6 earthquakes have not yet fully faded; we have died and been killed time and again with forest fires, flood disasters, social violence, workplace accidents, traffic accidents, suicide cases, attacks by stray animals, murders of women and children, and the actions of the pack of murderers known as the newborn gang.

After every painful event, we cursed; we lamented; we felt sad, we cried; sometimes we declared mourning, but not much changed. All the pain was talked about for a few days and then forgotten. The fire burned where it fell, and only tears remained...

Since Tuesday, our eyes and ears have been on Bolu Kartalkaya. The news coming in is unfortunately bad! The number of missing persons is very high; the condition of the injured is critical; those who managed to survive the fire are in shock; people who lost their loved ones are helpless and, not knowing what to do, are trying to identify the lifeless bodies of their relatives...

In fact, every single person described for a few days as if they were just numbers with phrases like "... number of dead; ... number of injured" has a separate life story that we do not know. Each of them had dreams, hopes, expectations, and joys until a short while ago. Families who wanted to enjoy a vacation together, students, teachers, and academics who worked hard for a term and wanted to go skiing; writers who wanted to enjoy the winter; romantic couples who wanted to watch the snowfall together; workers on the job, and many more stories we do not know...

The life stories of these people, each with their own separate life story, whether short or long, bitter or sweet, unfortunately ended with a common and very sad ending. A small spark, a chain of negligence, and a lack of precautions cost our brilliant people their lives. Now, whatever we say after our losses is empty; whatever we do is useless!

We are now very, very overwhelmed by dying, being left disabled, or being physically and psychologically injured because of the negligence and lack of precautions of others. Crimes that go unpunished, promises that do not turn into action, and cases that yield no results have exhausted each of us immensely. As survivors, we are not safe, we are not at peace, and we start the day with a different trauma at every moment.

For example, we now have to calculate the possibility of being poisoned and dying even while eating a baked potato; the possibility of getting punched in the face for no reason while walking on the street; or, when going on vacation, we have to personally check what kind of precautions the hotel we are going to has taken, or whether it has taken any precautions at all, in case of fire, earthquake, flood, etc.

If anyone asks, we are living, yes we are living, but how are we living? We are living "so well" by thinking that breathing is living, by saying "I made it home safe and sound today" after wasting our lives in traffic, by consuming the world's lowest-quality food products at exorbitant prices and getting sick, by calculating even the steps we take and struggling with economic difficulties, and by stealing the hopes and dreams of our children and youth. As Orhan Veli said, "We live for free, for free!" In fact, it is so free that the cheapest thing is our life!