Letter to Trabzon

What an impatient society are we. We started to hesitate to listen people for only a minute. We do not want to understand even the closest one. Spending the time recklessly and speaking on the ridiculous subjects... We know both very well, but we, as community, do not spare some time to read a little writting or understand the people. Consequently, we became only a "crowd" which is insensitive, blank, thoughtless and unquestioned; because, we did not understand and listen to people. We have herd behaviour, not another thing. We could not become individuals, we can not become too; because, we have already forgotten the humanistic values. We are ready to attack and destroy for all time. A spark is enough to spread the fire. It is enough to give assault with Allah Allah(*). As i said, we are a society having herd behaviour; because, we could not become individuals. How does a person manage and represent him/herself if s/he is not an individual? It is the thing that make people unbearable and treacherous. There are threatening masses on the streets with staff and guns wait for lynching all time: for the country, for the nation, for the flag...

Greece is going to join the 55th Eurovision Song Contest, whose host is Norway, with the song named as "Opa". A lot of people, in the first instance people in Trabzon, reacted to this event. Being the people in Trabzon are the first instance is too interesting, is not it? As well as Trabzon is the city that the Greeks bequeathed the most in the Black Sea and Anatolia as historical. The city that the most remembered when you say Greek or Pontic(Pontus). The city in which clemency and neighborhood relationships are lived the best for the years. You know, Trabzon is always mentioned in the Greek songs... The Greeks who lived in the area from Inebolu to Poti sound Trabzon; because, they loved Trabzon and they die for it. There are lots of Greek songs concerning love and affeciton. They always think their history and what they lived. Then they stare into far aways there are only their tears remained... They have experienced disasters, deportations, genocides, but they have never forgotten both their motherlands and their folksongs, fiddles(kemençe). The only thing they have forgotten is: The grudge and the hostility... Because, their hearts had never let it. Far far away, they have lived this nostalgia silently and lonely, but they always talked of people surviving in their homelands, have never forgotten them. They always hope getting back, watching the sea and the uplands until satisfied, breathing its air... playing the fiddle plaintively or dancing the horon, the dance of the knives... putting to the vicious Black Sea one more time, releasing their fishnets and fishing... How many times they hope returning... If someone asked them that " Do you want to come back today?" in fact, the answer is too clear: we do not hesitate, exactly yes.

The negative reactions of the people lived nera the Black Sea, especially in Trabzon, are disappointing. Here is the society which do not know their history, never read and think communally, don not understand that what have we missed about humanity from past to present. These are the reasons of the negative reactions to the Greece. Do not misunderstood, we love the people lived near the Black Sea, all of our people, all humankind, so we protect our culture. Our duty is that expalining some unseen, incoherent and unknown truths to the people So that, we judge the racism, impatience and discrimination; not the people lived near the Black Sea. Because, the love starts with the knowledge and recognizing...

Stelyo Kapodakis