As we approach another holiday, the familiar feelings that should warm our hearts are replaced by a heavy reality this time. Because not only in this country but all over the world, while people are suffering, wars are going on, innocent people are losing their lives, even talking about the holiday creates a bitterness in people.
In these lands, Eid is not only a religious ritual, but also a social threshold where conscience, compassion and justice are recalled. It is a day when resentments are reconciled, the poor are cared for and resentments are mended. But what is happening today, both in our country and in the world, deeply shakes this meaning.
Can there be a holiday without justice?
For a long time now, politics in Turkey has been proceeding on a ground that contradicts the values that Eid represents. Polarization, repression, judicial debates and shrinking areas of freedom...
While there are politicians, journalists and thinkers in prison, for a section of society the holiday is always incomplete.
The issue of Ekrem İmamoğlu, whose arrest will be over a year ago, has become a symbol at this very point. This is not just a judicial process; it is a process where the will of the people, democracy and the sense of justice are tested.
The essence of Eid is justice. If justice is lacking, so is Eid.
As the Middle East Burns: Which Bayram?
Today, a geography is burning before the eyes of the world.
Tensions and conflicts between Iran and Israel...
The United States of America, which is directly or indirectly part of this process...
And the peoples caught in the middle of this great power struggle.
Innocent people are losing their lives in many parts of the Middle East, especially in Gaza.
Children wake up under bombs, mothers bury their children, cities are reduced to rubble.
The question we need to ask ourselves now is very clear:
How can we celebrate Eid here when people are dying there?
This question is a question of conscience.
Eid is not only about experiencing our own joy, but also about feeling the pain of others. If children in one place cannot wake up to Eid, Eid in another place is incomplete.
Man in the Midst of War and Politics
Today, wars are not only fought on the frontlines. Wars are now being fought inside cities, in the lives of civilians, in the future of children.
Those who die for political calculations, power struggles and international interests are always the same:
Innocent people.
Bayram, on the contrary, puts the human at the center.
War kills, Eid keeps you alive.
War divides, holidays unite.
But if wars continue, the holiday is just a reminder:
A reminder of the kind of world we want to live in...
Economic Reality: The Silent War Within
There is also an invisible war: poverty.
Millions of people in Turkey enter Eid with economic problems.
Children who cannot buy holiday clothes, pensioners who cannot give pocket money to their grandchildren, families who are preparing for the holiday with deficiencies in their kitchens...
This is another injustice.
Eid means equal joy for everyone. But as inequality deepens, the feast is divided.
“What's the big deal about Eid...”
There is a reproach in the language of the people that describes this very picture:
I don't care if it's a holiday,
Blood drips into my heart...
My friends have fallen into distant hands,
I cry...
These verses tell a truth, not just a sadness.
If there is suffering, if there is injustice, if there is war, Eid is not fully born in man.
A Call to Politics Return to Conscience
Today, the greatest need of the political institution both in Turkey and in the world is conscience.
Equal administration of justice for all
Reassessment of the situation of imprisoned politicians and intellectuals
Abandonment of war policies
Strengthening peace and diplomacy
Eid is the time when this call is strongest.
When is the real Eid?
Real Eid;
Where children don't die,
The silence of wars,
Where justice is distributed equally to all,
It is possible in a world where no one is deprived of their freedom because of their opinions.
Maybe today we will celebrate Eid.
But there's something missing in us...
Because we know;
A child in Gaza will not wake up to Eid,
A mother in the Middle East will mourn her child,
And someone in this country will welcome the holiday behind bars.
That is why we will keep asking:
Is this really a holiday?
It is our wish;
One day, when Eid comes, let no one say, “What's wrong with Eid?”
When that day comes, then it will truly be a feast.