EARTHQUAKE and STATE ( Haber File Anjel Dikmek Wrote
Türkçe I CANNOT UNDERSTAND! Even in the most difficult situation when your human brothers and sisters need you, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND your inability to get out of the grudge and hatred that you have imprisoned your souls and that you feel for the other! When I think of what the Japanese did, who, after coming to Istanbul and analysing the Süleymaniye Mosque, which was at the top of their list, figured out the technique of Sinan the Architect, i.e. Simon, an Armenian recruit from Kayseri, by calculating the flexing allowance of the building in architecture, by examining his works built centuries ago, and used it in the buildings they built in their country from that day onwards, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND the situation of those who tried to prove that Sinan was a "Turk" by opening his grave (1 August 1935), removing his skull and measuring and cutting it up, and the fact that they pursued arguments that could constitute the denial of his ethnic identity, when all they were interested in was Sinan's architectural genius and the innovations he discovered in the art of architecture! It is 2023 and ten cities in Turkey have been destroyed by earthquakes. Impartial experts, based on the number of collapsed buildings and their calculations assuming that three people lived in each flat, say that 300 thousand people were buried under the earth. The Japanese find and use the techniques of Mimar Sinan, who is a value of those lands, but the people of my country accept this natural disaster without taking any precautions, saying "It is from Allah". If Allah is the only one, and the same Allah is the one who gave reason to all human beings, why does the Japanese use that reason, and why do the people of my country refuse to use this reason? Isn't refusing to use this intellect a rejection of Allah, whom you never stop talking about? I CAN'T UNDERSTAND! Aid teams from foreign countries came to the country. From France, Greece, Armenia. I read the comments "Muslim has no friend but Muslim!" under these posts. While our lives under the ground are struggling with time and cold, while these teams coming to help will try to pull out people who are someone's offspring, mother, sister, father, relative from the rubble in front of your eyes, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND why it is so difficult for some to understand and realise that this is only a HUMAN solidarity! Even in the most difficult situation when your human brothers and sisters need you, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND why you cannot get out of the clamp of hatred and hatred for the other that you have imprisoned your souls in! I CANNOT UNDERSTAND that you still haven't learned that pain has no hierarchy and tears have no colour! If you are human, what am I? If I am human, what are you? I CANNOT UNDERSTAND! I CANNOT UNDERSTAND the mediocrity, evil, ugliness and cruelty in the political interest calculations in the minds of the government that prevents the aid of the people mobilised for aid from reaching its destination! While I feel as if the earth has collapsed on me even though I am kilometres away and I am breathless with the cries for help of people buried alive under the earth, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND why in our country where there are hundreds of thousands of contractors, these contractors do not mobilise the machines they use for the construction of their constructions to save the lives buried under the earth without waiting for permission or orders! I CANNOT UNDERSTAND why human life continues to be the cheapest thing in my country! When soldiers were beheaded on the Bosphorus Bridge, they said, "This people will not forgive this, they will take to the streets. Mehmet soldier is the most sacred. Emireri will ask for the account of these children!" While I was rebelling, the break that I experienced with the public's acceptance afterwards, which buried me in silence for four years, I am experiencing for the second time with this earthquake disaster. I CANNOT UNDERSTAND the people of my country who cannot say "ENOUGH!" or rebel against those who prevent and delay aid while hundreds of thousands of people are under the ground in ten cities, while their voices surround the earth. I cannot understand the spirit of solidarity in the society that was revealed by the earthquake disaster, the virtue of feeling the pain of the other in one's heart that was revealed at Hrant's funeral, the spirit of sharing and organisation that was revealed at Gezi; After seeing and experiencing the spirit of sharing and organisation, after experiencing the beauty and lightness of being HUMAN by breathing in that atmosphere, I CANNOT UNDERSTAND how those in power so easily fall for the attempts to defame, pollute, intimidate and destroy these movements that have the potential to create a peaceful, reconciliatory society, which is what the rulers fear the most, and how they fall into the trap of the same political game again and again for 150 years! In 1854, when the whites in America wanted to buy some lands belonging to the Indians, the Great Chief Seattle said the following in perhaps the most meaningful, sincere and beautiful speech about the environment of all time: "This thought seems strange to us! If we do not already have the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the waters, how can you buy them? We cannot understand these things, perhaps because we are savages! Fragrant flowers are our sisters. The deer, the horse, the great eagle are our brothers. The rocky hills, the drops on the wet meadows, the heat evaporating from the horse's body and HUMAN; they are all from the same family." In his long speech, he often says, "Maybe we are savages and we don't understand!" As I watched what happened after the earthquake, I realised how much I said I didn't understand after writing my article and found myself meeting in the wildness of Chief Seattle. Since I am one of the "savages" of our age, I cannot understand what you do and what you do not do. I am ending this article knowing that the fact that I and "life-lovers**" like me are devastated by our consciousness with human values does not mean anything to "death-lovers**". My condolences to all of us, especially to my friends who lost their relatives.
