Peace process will bring unity: Doğan TV Chair

Taha Akyol ISTANBUL / Hürriyet

Doğan TV Holding’s Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ (R) says the current attempts may prevent further losses and pain. DHA photo

Head of Doğan TV Holding Executive Committee Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ, who is also a member of the Wise People Aegean Region Committee, said all the citizens they have met in the meetings conducted in the past month had the common denominator of peace. Yalçındağ said the outcome of this process would be a strengthened feeling of unity and togetherness. “We will reach a mentality where the feeling of dueling will be left behind. “

In the Aegean Region where she was assigned, Yalçındağ said everybody she has met supported permanent peace and the process: “Nobody wants bloodshed. But sentiments are intense. Everybody has immense accumulated pain in their past. I think the challenge of the process is trying to balance what wisdom and logic tell us and our feelings.”

Yalçındağ also said that everything was developing very fast. “We had terror for the past 30 years in our country. How this will end all of a sudden; this is being questioned. Even though these are being questioned, everybody wants an environment of peace and an end to the armed clashes.”

Because the Aegean region was a region with a higher number of martyrs, Yalçındağ said sensitivity was higher. But, she also noted that the same sensitivities and same basic concerns were also present at various levels in other regions.

Territorial integrity

The basic concerns were “Will Turkey be separated,” “Will our territorial integrity be damaged,” “Are we going to be a federation.” Also extremities such as “Will the color of the flag change, what negotiation has been done,” were also present.

Among the most moving anecdotes that took place during the meeting happened at the central west town of Kütahya, she explained. It was the words cited from the letter of the father of a martyr.

Yalçındağ’s heart broke when the letter read, “Will you bring my son back to me? I have missed him.

His scent, his voice, his footsteps… My son had dreams.” According to Yalçındağ, no words, no logic is enough against this much intensity of feelings. Another family of a martyr asked them, “Where were you six months ago? Why did not this process start six months ago?” They had lost their son six months earlier.

“This fighting and violence, which have lasted years, should come to an end. Immense pain has been suffered. Of course it is not easy to leave behind these pains. Maybe we will not be able to forget them but we can prevent more pain. I regard this as a humanitarian and a national duty,” she said.