The Middle East Needs Love and Unity More Than Ever

1758

18 February, 2018

Nothing can remain hidden any more. By means of rapid advances in technology, countries and people are closer to one another than ever before. Political developments, disasters, wars and people's suffering immediately appear before the global public. This terrible picture witnessed by all pricks the conscience. Ruthlessness, injustice, anger and hatred have literally paralyzed some societies. People hunger for love. They long for peace, compassion, love and affection as never before. All mankind’s endeavors are in that direction. The easy thing is to bring about the reign of policies of “peace and love”; the difficult thing is to live with hatred, cruelty and war.

The Middle East has been full of wars, invasions, terror and violence for the last 100 years. The imperialist power divided up the Middle East and created artifical borders with ruler and compass under the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916. Brothers and communities that had lived together for centuries were split apart. As if that were not enough, the region’s underground and material resources were intensively exploited by the European powers. The dictators that followed ruined people’s lives and took away their freedoms. The pride of the people of the Middle East had been shattered.

This fine territory, one of the richest in both material and spiritual terms, containing the holy lands where the true prophets once lived, was made into a hell on earth. Self-interest, selfishness and lovelessness paralyzed the people of the region, took away their joy and ruined their peace of mind. A language of violence and hatred inflicted pain on communities, instead of joy. Some tribes, organizations and parties came to violate the most basic human rights in those regions where they were strong simply for the sake of their own interests; regimes came to think of their own rule, rather than their peoples. Investment was made in material things, not people. Money was spent on arms, not on education, health, social life or art. Imperialism, savage capitalism and other political movements emphasizing hatred brought neither peace nor happiness to the region. The countries that came to the region all embraced loveless policies and problems were resolved only through violence, not through love, compassion and mutual understanding.

Yet all the region needs is love. Policies of love must prevail in the Middle East, not condescending language, threats, harshness, immediate violence and policies of hatred.

The world needs love. The Middle East needs love. Turkey needs love.

The Turkish nation loves the peoples of the Middle East. It wants peace in Syria, a powerful Iraq, a strong and peaceful Lebanon to enjoy better days than in the past and it seeks a free and independent Palestine. It wants peace and love in Egypt and Yemen and strength is of course essential to all these.

Strength should not put one in mind of armies, rockets, guns, or vast bodies of manpower. The greatest power in the world is a high-quality society that insists on policies of love. Unity - and being able to respond as one to difficulties and aggression - is the secret to being strong. Quality, art, skill and unity are our greatest weapons. Love is our greatest strength and the source of our greatest wealth.

Countries in the Middle East are headed toward ever-increasing and unending fragmentation. This must be stopped first. A spirit of unity must rule the region instead.

New and impenetrable borders and cruel walls go up following every new division. Mines are laid, barbed wire is strung out, walls go up and ditches are dug. Yet what the Middle East needs is for the borders to be lifted, with bonds of love, and as much freedom as possible.

Unity brings many delights to people’s lives. A union like that found in Europe with freedom of movement, with no borders, a climate of freedom where anyone can easily go from Cairo to Damascus, to Istanbul or to Baku; it is that for which we must strive; it is that idea that we should seek to bring forth in the Middle East. We need a Middle East where someone can have breakfast in Beirut and dinner in Gaza, where after visiting Jerusalem he can proceed freely to Yemen. There is no reason this cannot be accomplished; we must put aside our differences and leave behind our squabbles and feuds, and recognize that only in unity can we achieve brotherhood and peace.