Hello my friends. I'm not from Greece or Turkey, but I hope you don't mind if I intrude for a moment?
...
I think this discussion is really great, for 3 reasons:
1. I have lived in Turkey, and I have a former family member (an Aunt by marriage) who is from Greece.
2. I love to study history, and the histories of both Greece and Turkey are extraordinary, very fascinating to me.
3. Call me a sentimental fool, but I just love to see discussions like this. It can be delicate, and a little risky, but I think it's really great. I'm 51 years old, and I've traveled, and I've seen a lot of terrible things. So for me, it's wonderful to see GOOD things happen. And I think this discussion is a wonderful thing.
So: Gyzemus, I congratulate you for having the courage to open this topic!
Marmaris, you said "... because they are thinking that we hate them ..." and vice versa, the opposite ... Yes, sadly, sometimes to have an "enemy" is just a state of mind ... false perception ... and fear of the "unknown"? ... But when the perception and the fear can be broken, erased, then the world is so much better for everybody.
Greece: My Greek Aunt liked to talk about "why" there have always been bad feelings between Turks and the Greeks. She thought that it was ONLY because of 2000 years of history. But history is the past. History does not have to be our Present or our Future.
Turkey: When I was in Turkey, people talked to me and a few other Americans, about world affairs and politics. And of course we talked pleasantly and peacefully, as friends
... and we would ALWAYS agree on 1 thing: There is simply too much misunderstanding between people of different countries and cultures. And most of the time, that is the ONLY problem.
And that's why I think that this discussion is such a good thing. Maybe it can't really be seen right now, but THERE IS SO MUCH VALUE IN DISCUSSIONS LIKE THIS ..... Maybe someone in this group of friends will become a world leader someday? And you will remember this forum, and these friends, for the rest of your life.
I also have a small personal concern ..... it's a different issue, but it's still the same problem .... I also have a friend in Ukraine. And there is the same kind of history, bad feelings, between some Turkish and Ukrainian people?? ..... But once again, it's only History. It does not have to be the Present or the Future.
Also: My best friend in the U.S. is from Poland. He escaped, defected, from Poland in 1981. He and his family had some very bad experiences in Poland, and it's really hard for him to forget. And so he doesn't like it when I talk about Russia ... or Ukraine ... or Germany ... of course I understand, and of course I have a lot of sympathy. But it's in the past.
I'm just a foolish dreamer, but maybe one day in the future, we can all forget the pain.
But of course we can't forget History, because we need to learn and remember why bad things have happened before. And then we can try to avoid them. But of course there will always be "bad people", but of course we can always handle such things, together.
It's all very obvious, very plain and simple, isn't it?
Well ..... PLEASE FORGIVE ME for intruding into your "private" discussion, and for talking too much! But I think this is SO RIGHT .... this is SO GREAT .....
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... All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
~ Sir Winston Churchill
... We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.
... All of this will not be finished in the first one hundred days, nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
... The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics, whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.
~ John F. Kennedy
Physical, mental, strategic, tactical, fast, aggressive, sometimes sleek and subtle, and sometimes just plain brutish. It's everything that sports should be.