The food packages we distributed weighed about 20 kilograms each, containing basic kitchen necessities such as tomato paste, pasta, halva and the like. We were divided into three distribution teams, with each team being accompanied by a local businessman and a local woman. My team visited nine families facing different levels of hardship. In one day, we saw the ugly face of poverty, unemployment, imprisonment of the husband, betrayal of the husband, incapacitating illnesses and ignorance. In one day, we tried to cure the wounds of generations.Both Mardin and Midyat are known as mosaic cities. Midyat is home to Kurds, Turks, Arabs, Assyrians and Yezidis. Kurds belong to different tribes, and Assyrians are not all Assyrian Orthodox. This pluralism has never led to inter-communal conflict. The city is a happy marriage of differences. At the end of our three-day “We are Here” trip, we realized that the only Turk we met in Midyat was the head of the organization that helped Kimse Yok Mu reach the poor families. We were accompanied by Arab businessmen when bringing a small gift to a Kurdish house. Other groups were accompanied by Kurdish businessmen, and they visited Arab houses.
Ours was not the first Kimse Yok Mu operation in Midyat. The businessmen already knew the addresses of the poor people. This is a civilizational revolution: Kimse Yok Mu is turning the civilization into one where the rich look after the poor and not vice versa. Everywhere around the world the poor know where to go for help. In Midyat, it was the affluent people searching for the less advantaged ones. This is a small step toward a very humane civilization.
This is also a small step in a solidarity initiative that will be backed not only by Kurds, but by all segments of Turkish society.
Let it not be thought that Kimse Yok Mu is an aid organization directed by affluent Turks at poor Kurds to win over their hearts. First, local distribution teams comprised Kurds and Arabs. Second, the distribution appealed not only to those who received the material help, but also to those who were there to distribute it. We all felt re-educated about the meaning of life. We all rediscovered the other half of our society.
A Kurdish man who was almost bedridden due to an accident he lived through told us that the material value of what we brought to his family meant nothing compared to the fact that we came from İstanbul to ask about his needs. In fact, the material value of the package meant a lot to his family also, but he thanked us by putting a smile on his face. This was a day in Ramadan, and we were all fasting. He was not able to offer us anything to eat. Instead, he offered us his smiling face and words of gratitude. We were thankful to him for his smiling face also.
We all paid a lot.
On our way back home, we were all more aware of the existence of others in our society. We all cared more about their needs. We were all in a mood of celebrating the plurality of ethnicities, languages and beliefs in our country.
What if there were no Kurds -- and no Kurdish smiles -- in our country? What if there were no Arabs -- and no Arab words of welcoming and bidding farewell -- in this country?
Kimse Yok Mu was founded as a response to calls of people looking for someone to help them and of people looking for somebody to help. Kimse Yok Mu, both for the people who help and those who are helped, is “somebody” for the other.
In Midyat, we felt like part of a large family.
The government seems to have geared up its democratic initiative. This determination deserves all praise. But no government initiative can be an alternative to what we experienced in Midyat: a taste of brotherhood.
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