As I sit in front of the MacBook to begin writing all of this, the news of the day are unfortunately once again 'oh-so-familiar': "Six Turkish soldiers killed in a terrorist attack"... "Four killed in a hospital shoot-out as one man has a nervous breakdown"...
And on top of it all British citizens put a stand against their government and decided to pull out of the European Union. Every capital in the 'Old Continent' was in panic mode! Aftershocks of Brexit created a tsunami effect on the global economy as the parliaments of every single country were forced to hold emergency meetings. It was undoubtedly a 'Black Friday' for the whole world.
Is there really no place where people from different religions, ethnic cultures and countries can live in peace and harmony?
Well, there is in my neck of the woods.
Kuzguncuk... It is a serene neighborhood on the Asian side of Istanbul... The streets are almost 'decorated' with antique wooden houses crowned by the majestic view of the Bosphorus.
Istanbul itself is a place of utter chaos. It cannot be easy to carry the burden of so much history. The city has got to count its blessings of course, but the curses are just as many...
However, Kuzguncuk is different... It's still a place of tranquility in the midst of all the 'metropolitan cacophony'. On one side of its main street stand a mosque and an Armenian church side by side. Just 100 feet from them, a synagogue and a Greek Orthodox church calmly witness the day’s hurly burly.
Kuzguncuk is the kind of neighborhood where not only the religious beliefs but the believers themselves live together in total peace.
Here is how;
June 16, 2016... Istanbul is gearing up for another scorching hot summer day. It is the holy month of Ramadan and exceptionally high temperatures make fasting a tad bit more difficult. But not even the heat can hinder the special preparations going on at the Kuzguncuk Synagogue… An important tradition is once more going to 'blossom' at this very location. Some, like me, may even call it a small miracle in this day and age…
Every year during this holy month, the synagogue organizes an evening when people from all religions come together for an iftar dinner. In other words, the mosque, the church and the synagogue come together with everything they represent and mingle with each other in the most sincere way possible.
Religious leaders give messages of peace and unity while communities connect like they used to in centuries past. This united front is actually nothing more than a microcosm of Turkey itself. The Muslims, the Jews, the Armenians, the Catholics and all sorts of people with different beliefs and denominations have lived and continue to live on this “land” they share.
In fact, up until the 50's Kuzguncuk was home mainly to Jews, Armenians and Greeks. As more and more Anatolian Turks started to migrate to Istanbul, the neighborhood ceased to be an exclusively non-Muslim area. You would expect this to cause tension or raise conflict but no such thing happened. The people of Kuzguncuk even helped the newly arriving Muslims to build a mosque and have their own place of worship. Apparently those were idyllic times when Islamophobia had not yet spread its 'venom' all over the globe...
However, as the famous picture, or actually the 'infamous' picture gets bigger, the image gets darker and darker. Although in a small community a united front is possible, globally people nowadays tend to 'unite' against each other. As we became more crowded and more 'developed', we started to move away from our humanity. Instead of building bridges the people preferred to erect colossal walls between themselves.
How can hatred be so prevalent when the idea of "Love thy neighbor" is instilled by every single religion? Baffling isn't it?
These past years the bitter fruits of this hatred were scattered all over the world. Terrorism has become a common and frequently used word in our vocabulary. Instead of focusing on the real threats and the causes of our impending doom, we, the people, found it easier to choose a scapegoat; whether it be a religion, a country or a certain part of the world. This collective insensitivity combined with our inability to feel empathy is the reason why a country like the U.S.A. which is considered to be the cradle of democracy, is unbelievably hoping for a future with a presidential candidate like the ultimate 'racist' Donald Trump.
Believe me when I say there are people in Istanbul, thousands of miles away from Washington D.C., who are praying that such an 'antagonist' does not come into power…
“Whatever the language, religion or color of one might be, a good human being is a good human being.”
These words were spoken by Haji Bektash Veli... Another sufi philosopher of the Anatolian civilization who is as invaluable as his more popular counterpart, Rumi. However, it would be best to point out that Haji Bektash uttered this saying almost 200 years prior to the discovery of America by the 'white man'.
So what is the world to do? How can humanity snap out of its gloom?
To be honest, I am not so sure we can... Maybe what we need is a whole new ark like Noah's where only the people who are rid of their greed, evil, inflated egos are allowed in. That way we could set sail to new horizons while those who stay behind implode in their own filth and we could all live like the great people of a tiny neighborhood of Istanbul...
Izzet Çapa