War in Ukraine and Atatürk

As almost everyone knows, Turkey is a country that has lands in both Asia and Europe. "Geography Is Destiny" and this geography has been witnessing and challenging wars for hundreds of years...

Another war is taking place in the northeast of the Black Sea. When you think about it, there were many more wars and conflicts in Eurasia and the Middle East in a very short time. In Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria, Bosnia and Herzegovina... While tens of thousands of people lost their lives, many more had to leave their homes...

More than 30,000 civilians fleeing the Ukrainian War, which has been over a month, are in Turkey. Some of them came to Turkey by their own means. Some of them were in Turkey and when the war started they stayed in Turkey. Some of them started to be hosted by non-governmental organizations and private companies.

As a Turkish citizen, I would like to express that I am proud of our hospitality. There are around 4 million civilians in Turkey fleeing the civil war in Syria. Together with Afghanistan and other countries, this figure is approaching 5 million. 

So why did I write all this?

The Anatolian geography, which hosted the Jews who fled from Europe during and after the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, met with a modern republic in 1923 with Atatürk. Atatürk, an important figure in Turkish political history, is the leader of the Turks, both militarily and politically. And I would like to share with you a few words of his about war (or peace):

- Unless a nation’s life faces peril, war is murder.

- Peace at home, peace in the world.

- Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives (at Gallipoli battles). You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.. You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now living in our bosom and are in peace. Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

With the hope that this vast tolerance and foresight can serve as an example...