ince the beginning, I have resisted the tiresome writings of  those defendants of war. Therefore, I have decided to write basing my thoughts on reality, because   before and after the match between Galatasaray-Leeds, a sports competition has been turned into  a matter of  life and death, pride and status, bravery and betrayal…
The wonderful success of  Galatasaray has unfortunately turned into a dramatic scene after killing the two young English men due to the lack of foreseeing  the future.
Meanwhile, some of the events that I have remembered made me become aware of  one of the weaknesses  in our society, which is  the lack of  culture.
Following the match, while the majority was in a state of euphoria because of  the victory , only a few felt the necessity of  speaking about the reality.
It was very strange to see that before the match the people who were saying that they had to be protected and the precautions were not enough,      said after the match that  they couldn’t live the joy enough, they could not show their feelings openly and this in a way had frustrated them.
I am saying these for  those who have been to Leeds and the press.
Those who were in Turkey had done everything  more than necessary in accordance with the demands of the victory; actually we can say that they have satisfied their needs of living their feelings to the fullest extent.

However, there is a fact which should not be overlooked and I cannot help reminding it:
First of all think, for an instant that your own brother, your son and his wife, your  own  wife and children have been killed instead of those two  young men who have been killed...
Afterwards try to live the joy of the victory to the fullest extent.
However, at the same time we should all agree that this was only a match.

Our minds went blank when we saw in the press  the pictures of those two young men  with their families.
Just when  the  Leeds match was about to finish, BBC started to broadcast the adventure which had started in İstanbul and made all the attention to get focused on this matter.
Most probably it was due to the policy of a broadcasting company, but for us the programme was reflecting the reality.

All right, then what could be the reason that pushes our people towards such actions?
What could be the reason in killing people?
It is necessary to have a look at our cultural structure without being prejudiced.
Sometimes, trying to overlook the events and singing  only the songs of victory may create a tolerance for some events; ıt seems in a way to open the door a little bit for them.
However, this weakness  that I have tried to mention without going into the details is the evidence showing that something in the culture is missing.
As a matter of fact, culture is a factor necessary for us for perceiving the world, for creating our symbols and  it should be evaluated within the scope of the the family, the environment, communication and helping one another.
When we take into consideration all of the above, then would it be possible to say that finding joy in spitting at a bleeding person is in a way the symbolisation of  our dominant culture?

The inability to understand this factor leads us to make cuts in the body of a human being, make him bleed and sloughter him; in other words it makes one behave like animals.

Today, a foreigner has been the subject of such a bad treatment. What we have seen means that tomorrow, the same kind of action will be taken towards our own natives…
The events are lived through and they come to an end, however what is the use of finding such actions on such a basis as  legal?..
In adition to these, there are those who defend that all what has been done was correct?..

Such behaviour,  which have been created by the relativity in cultural values and the tendencies among the members of the society, arises as a result of living the cultural heritage in our generation.  In order not to have more sorrowful events such as the above, we should immediately change the understanding ‘’Strong as a Turk’’ with the understanding ‘’Cultured as a Turk’’ and put it into practice immediately.

İstanbul, April 28th 2000
http://afyuksel.com