Isn't it unfortunate?

BY YUSUF KANLI
TDN- A few years ago this nation suffered one of the worst disasters of its history. We lost over 15,000 of our own to a deadly earthquake that devastated five cities, destroyed thousands of homes and inflicted serious psychological trauma on millions of us. At least a quarter of our population has spent the last five years since the Aug. 17, 1999 quake to build a new life on what remained with the help of both our generous people and the international community.
We did suffer from a tsunami at the time, though ours was much smaller than the one that recently hit South Asia and, compared to the impact of the killer earthquake, it was negligible. But for many years we kept discussing earthquakes and a possible tsunami disaster in the Marmara area -- particularly in Istanbul. That is, although "tsunami" is a Japanese word, every single person in this society had an idea of what it meant. The 1999 disaster was not the first natural catastrophe this nation has suffered. We have had many such events, even in our recent past. The only difference was that the 1999 tremor hit the heart of Turkish industry, and the death toll was enormous. But how has it happened that this nation is so insensitive in the face of the massive human suffering in the Indian Ocean since the Dec. 26 earthquake and the ensuing killer tsunami? How has it happened that we couldn't even organize a three-minute tribute to the memory of the victims of the calamity in the same respectful fashion as European nations? How has it happened that total donations to nongovernmental relief campaigns have stagnated at pitiful levels?
Congratulations are in order for the exemplary behavior demonstrated by Turkish Exporters Union (TIM) chairman Oguz Satici, who on behalf of his group pledged to contribute approximately $700,000 to the campaign. We were also pleased to learn that the Turkish Red Crescent Society has decided to allocate $1.1 million of its own resources for the South Asian victims. Private donations, so far, unfortunately, have barely exceeded YTL 4 million -- around $3 million -- including the TIM and Kizilay contributions. Even when the government's $1.25 allocation for the victims is added to this, the total aid Turkey has offered to date still remains less than half of what was pledged by Formula One race driver Michael Schumacher, who announced that he would give $10 million.
We have no intention of comparing Turkey to any other country, knowing that we would be ashamed of the amount pledged by our state to the international campaign, but at least as individuals we have to be more generous since we do know how desperate the people of the disaster-stricken area are and how valuable any sort of assistance would be.
In addition to Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, it would have been admirable if all Turkish executives and officials joined in the campaign and tried to generate some awareness in our society of the immensity of the suffering and how desperately our helping hand is needed.
Continued appeals to the nation by Foreign Minister Gul should not go unanswered. We have to wake our society up and make it realize that what the South Asian peoples are experiencing today is no different in form from what we experienced in 1999, except that the immense losses we suffered cannot be compared to the death toll in this disaster and its possible economic fallout.
Turkey cannot be a country of people who remain so silent, so insensitive to and so unaware of the sufferings of the people of South Asia.
Wake up Turkey. Your generous help is awaited.