Let us celebrate the New Year

Those days when our social media accounts were not covered in black photos, when everyone was making future plans with joy, when people were not so angry and yelling at each other, they seem so long ago. 

Today, we are in need of unity and togetherness, more than ever. These days, we need high morale and hope, the most. We need to feel normal and safe. These are days we lose confidence in ourselves and in our future plans. We have to prevent this. Let us pull ourselves together by standing hand-in-hand and encourage each other to boost our morale. 

Those trolls who want to inflict disunity among people are on it again. 

“How can we celebrate the holidays of those cruel people who are also doing all these atrocities in Aleppo?” they argue.   

These are people who assume or who think they know the truth but want others to believe that New Year’s is a religious holiday, and want people to believe that all Christians are cruel and that the reason for things happening in Aleppo is done by people who celebrate New Year’s. They are the same people who use Aleppo as an excuse and target people who buy gifts for their kids, set dinner tables and invite their friends over for New Year’s. 

Stores are empty, the economy has stagnated, people are depressed, their eyes have dried up from crying. 
Come on, allow us to celebrate this at least. 

Let us celebrate the Eurasia Tunnel, our newly-opened bridges, international awards received by Turkish artists, our national holidays as well as religious holidays. Let us celebrate the anniversaries of the founding of our companies. Let us celebrate birthdays, marriage and wedding anniversaries. But let us also celebrate the New Year. 

All of these are actually celebrating new beginnings and are celebrating hope. Gloom and introversion does not suit our energetic, impulsive and smiling nation. 

If you don’t want to, then you are free, by all means, not to celebrate. But do not interfere into others’ lives. Do not bully, do not use ugly words, do not pressure citizens, they need a bit of morale and a bit of joy. 
If you do, then, what you are doing is called provocation. 


Utopia and dystopia 

A religious group secretly positions itself within the army and attempts to stage a coup. The president amid that chaos, connects to a live broadcast through a journalist’s mobile phone via Facetime and asks people to take to the streets, leading to events taking a turn. 

A horrendous terror attack happens at the heart of the city. The question that arises is whether a terror gang or its branch or a secret service of a seemingly ally country is behind the attack. 

A shocking assassination of an ambassador is perpetrated. The slogans of the murderer are misleading. We begin to wonder if he works for a terror network, and who is behind him holding strings.  

These are like the stories of a TV show. But no screenwriter would write such major events unfolding in such a short time, one after the other. It would not seem realistic.  

We are actually living in a dazzling speed in surreal times. 

They might be a good script for a thriller but when it happens in my beautiful country, it is very unpleasant. 

Not only my country, but the whole world is transforming into a thriller movie set. 

We are living those days when the world is coming closer to a dystopian film.