Two separate ‘Peace Days’ are only twenty days apart in different world geographies. Two separate demands for peace are precisely a bipolar life itself. As Brecht said, these polarisations and wars are the work of the sovereigns who capitalise on all living beings. We know very well that the Second World War did not start on 1 September. As the crises in the relations of production deepen, the sovereigns continue to use the excuses they produce to take the lives of those they can spend the easiest and to fuelling hostilities by calling them enmity, patriotism, and treason.
The consumption of cities, living spaces and nature, poverty, disease and disability, deepening exploitation and forced migration of displaced people continue to increase during conflicts and wars. The latest example of the destruction caused by this state of war is taking place in Palestine. In the last ten months alone, the number of people killed in Gaza and the West Bank has exceeded 41 thousand, the number of wounded has approached 100 thousand, the number of people left homeless is expressed in hundreds of thousands, and more than 500 health institutions have been directly targeted and damaged.
The following issues are proof that wars are a public health problem: The deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and millions of living beings, the almost complete loss of access to clean water, safe food and health services, the lack of access to adequate food for tens of millions of people, millions of children facing semi-starvation, the fact that more than 70% of those affected by the war are:
- Children
- The loss of thousands of children a week from preventable diseases during the war
- The targeting of children and women by human trafficking
- The torture on battlefields
- The massacre of people due to hunger and thirst
We who live in Turkey are the closest witnesses to the suffering caused by conflicts not only in our region but also in our country. Despite our belief in and need for peace and brotherhood, we are being made a part of violence more and more every day. Political conflicts deepen social conflicts.
Thus, we have no choice but to build a peaceful environment for a sustainable democratic life. Every call for peace today is also a call for an equal, free, just, and non-exploitative world against imperialism.
As the workers, public labourers, engineers, architects, city planners, physicians, dentists and producers of this country, we want a country where conflicts and weapons are silenced, a country in friendship with its neighbours, a country where different beliefs, cultures and identities within its borders can live in equality, freedom and justice.
A world without war and exploitation will be built in our hands, in solidarity. We call on all humanity to raise this hope. Until that day, we will celebrate in peace;
Happy 1 September World Peace Day!