BY HADI ULUENGIN
HURRIYET- Firstly, I would like to welcome Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who's currently paying an official visit to Turkey, the first from a Greek premier in nearly a half-century, and salute our friendly neighbors. Of course, for neighboring countries like Turkey and Greece, such a contact after such a long time is hailed in line with its importance and meaning. It's no exaggeration to call Karamanlis' visit historic.
Now let me write about a more serious and particularly humane dimension of bilateral relations. Yes, it's humane, because, besides the similarities between our culture and food, a humanitarian disaster was key in our nations rediscovering each other and so advancing towards a peaceful atmosphere in order to end former conflicts. Of course I mean the August 1999 earthquake in Turkey's Marmara region. This event was many times more historic than Karamanlis' current visit. It was a harsh road to reunite two nations and peoples.
Similarly, the Davos process, whose architect was our late President Turgut Ozal, and friendship initiatives carried out by a few civilians are nothing compared to the dynamic of rapprochement coming from the Marmara disaster, which immediately took on a collective dimension. None were even close to what happened following the earthquake. The Greek people weren't insensitive about the disaster we suffered, but sent help very sincerely. They also saw through modern means of communication that Turks aren't so very `other.' And from their help and sensitivity, we in turn learned that they aren't `the other' either. Thus, in a sense, we returned to the old era of `normality.' In other words, we're back to the friendship of not only the good days, but also the bad days that we went through in the Great Hunger of World War II.
Alas! The history of humanity is sometimes this way. People wait for a disaster to make peace. Enmities can be ended only through disasters, and friendships rise on their ruins. In addition, as the dust settled following the earthquake, our mutual basis is now more solid than before. The Turkish-Greek friendship has been strengthened so much that we can process Karamanlis' visit to Ankara. So let's give him a hearty welcome to our country.