REMEMBER TO BECOME ONE!

I would like to start by saying that this is a piece I found difficult to write, Dear Reader. Up until now, I have poured out everything that crossed my mind with all my sincerity, and I want you to know this with all transparency.

I have returned to Norway.

Some departures are hard…

When my country is in such a state, my tongue becomes reluctant to call another place home.

Ah, my dear, I ask myself, wasn't this home matter finished, wasn't that chapter closed?

As I thought it was closed, life shoved it right back in my face.

Our hearts ached deeply.

Our hearts beat with my country.

We experienced all the emotions at once. The rebellion of this destruction, the anger from the lack of control, the hope that a voice would come, the mourning for our dead, the joy for those we could save, the fear of those whose voices were fading, and the pain of the catastrophe.

We are still experiencing it.

On the streets, in shops, and in taxis, I always asked my fellow citizens with my heart trembling:

“Is everyone you know and love okay?”

Do you know what the most common answer was, Dear Reader?

“We don’t need to know, everyone’s life was lost.”

And now, I’m in a place where I can’t share any of these emotions with the people on the street. The disaster is very human, of course, everyone is upset, but the fire that ignited where it fell scorched Anatolia. To inherit these lands is a great responsibility…

We need to learn to become ONE, Dear Reader. To become one and to stay one. These lands have survived for thousands of years with people leaning on one another. As descendants of those ancestors, perhaps all of this happened because we drifted apart from each other…

Look at the magic of the word – each other.

If we gather all of us in one place, it’s just 1 unit.

Let’s remember.

It seems like we need this the most.

May our heads be held high, my beautiful Turkey! May Almighty Allah grant mercy to the souls of those we have sent to the House of Truth, to the HOME. May He grant patience to their grieving relatives and to all of us. I wish the fastest, most lasting, and correct help to our brothers and sisters who will continue their trials from here, and I wish us all the responsibility of unity.

With LOVE,

Selin BİNAY