Imagine eight young people.
Educated, talented, bright…
If only they minded their own business, built careers, strived for their own and their families’ welfare, they would have had everything. They would have had nice jobs, made good money, had people to manage, who would bow before them. Their families would live in prosperity. In order to get it all, they only needed one thing – to be silent.
These 8 young men are now imprisoned. Most of them have been jailed for about a year now. Hungry for five days. Their families’ most visited place is now a jail. They are deprived of the simple joys and comforts we are surrounded everyday. Their most valuable thing in life – their freedom, is now taken away from them. But they know there is something more worthwhile than freedom – conscience.
They are now imprisoned because they have listened to the voice of their conscience. They are imprisoned because they want us and our children to live in a free country. They are imprisoned because they want to build a beautiful country for their children, too. They could have raised their children in wealth, but they chose freedom over it. They wanted to provide not only bread, but freedom to them. They wanted to raise them as decent and free citizens, rather than slaves. This is why they have been arrested. For the beautiful and bright future they wanted to bring.
These young men have been hungry for 5 days. Think about their poor state right now. The state of their mothers, fathers, and the women they love. Think of those women, who watch their most beloved ones’ worsening conditions, losing the light in their eyes day by day, hour by hour.
They have been on a hunger strike for five days. They are hungry for the past five days because they are fulfilled.They are hungry because they are not slaves of their desires for villas, cars, money or positions. At a young age they nurtured moral and spiritual integrity. Moral values of these 20-25 year-olds are far from the ones of grown men, who govern this country. These grown-ups haven’t had enough in the past 20 years. They have so much wealth, they do not even know where to spend it all. Their sons make kebab from bears, and yet it is never enough.
Their endless greed is the reason why country’s youth is hungry…
I can only say one thing. I am ashamed. I am ashamed of the ability to go out any time I want to, eat when I am hungry, drink when I am thirsty, see my beloved ones when I want to, hug my friends when I feel like it, look at the sun, or walk in the rain. The current state of the youth imprisoned for a year, hungry for five days, whose beloved ones are suffering no less for the sake of my child to be able to live in a free and bright country, for him to be not a slave but a free man embarrasses me. While this youth is still imprisoned, our freedom is not real, our lives are not dignified. I am embarrassed to live right now. I am embarrassed to be able to breathe. I want to turn to the imprisoned youth and their beloved ones and say “Please forgive me and all of us. Forgive us for we live, breathe, eat, look at the sun.”
We are writing while your beloved ones suffer imprisonment. This is not a support, but rather a disgrace. We all have lost our dignities – some less, some more. Forgive us. I am ashamed, simply ashamed.
