The March Of Silent Shoes
28 September 2007
Taksim Square
Nazire Dedeman
Founder President of Umut Foundation
Speech Text
Distinguished Guests, Dear Friends,
Welcome all to Personal Disarmament Day activity. This years activity is the 13th one we are having.
Today, by gathering here we are realizing a very important and meaningful meeting in terms of personal disarmament. I would like to send my regards to you all on behalf of all those fighting against personal armament.
As you know, when we established Umut Foundation 14 years ago, our mission was to help building a peace-oriented and civilized society of which our children and young people would be proud.
As we set off with this mission, we believed that it was necessary to work on raising our children as individuals who believe in the supremacy of law; who trust justice and who are citizens aware of their rights and responsibilities. Their peaceful and happy living depends on the principles values and perspective of life they adopt, for which we are responsible. This is because they are our future. And our future should first of all be cleared from violence and from personal arms which are the most important element of violence.
It is primitive to resolve disputes with brutal force and under coercion. Using violence does not mean being strong, it means repressing weakness with primitivism. Firearms which have only one function, to kill, may not be the symbol of glory and pride; they can only be the symbol of primitivism. A gun abolishes courage, candidness, humanity and sympathy; the hands holding it are potential killers. The fact that personal armament, which destroys civilization and resolution, is widespread points at a secret hot war among people which has been continuing for a while; even though we are not in a war environment. As citizen we must decisively say No to Personal Armament in order to end this invisible war among us.
Dear Friends,
In todays world civilians retain 74% of all guns available and every minute some people lose their lives due to firearms. In Turkey 13 people out of every 100 have firearms and an average of 3000 lives is taken away yearly due to personal armament. The relatives, families and the loved ones of those who lost their lives because of personal armament must bear unbearable pains which are impossible to describe all their lives. .
Today, our children who are the assurance of our future meet firearms and knives at a very young age. One young person out of every 10 carries a cutter/driller and one out of every 20 young people carries a gun wants to become a gang member.
The situation is much worse than imagined, dear friends... Celebrating with guns during celebrations and entertainment activities may not be part of any tradition. According to the statistics of Security General Directorate the number of "firing guns at residential areas" incidents in 2006 is 6533 and this means a 19% increase in comparison to year 2005. As Umut Foundation, we saw the following fact at a study we carried out for: During around 80 incidents only until September, published on the third pages of the newspapers, guns were fired by mistake and they took away our citizens rights to live. These seriously fatal incidents were at their peak in August with 16 incidents in August. Even if we only take his news items into consideration we can easily see that each month almost 10 incidents occur where firearms take away lives just by accident. If we add to this deaths and injuries in suicide, robbery and deforcement cases and intentional homicide cases it is obvious that we are facing an extremely dreadful situation.
In addition to the existing 2.5 million licensed guns, at least triple as much unlicensed guns and the large number of blank guns and gas guns converted into real guns to end many people lives reveal an awful truth: Personal armament is increasing rapidly and our children, our loved ones lose their lives.
As well as there are no legal arrangements on blank guns and gas guns, in our country, young people and many of our citizens can easily obtain them. Blank guns can easily be converted to real guns and they are widely used in criminal acts. As no statistical information is kept regarding deaths and injures caused by blank guns it is not possible to get data for all of Turkey. However, as Umut Foundation, we would like to point out that blank guns also cost people their lives and the legal arrangements should be made on these blank guns in order to prevent from further spreading of personal armament.
In traffic, during an enthusiastic celebration, after the game, as we are sending off people to do their military service, during a circumcision ceremony, at henna night, in the middle of the street In brief any time and anywhere the barrel of a rifle could point at you or your children or a close one, with whom you share your life and could not bear their absence.
Dear friends!
Life should not be so cheap so that in could be ruined with a bullet worth 3 pennies. First of all, us citizens, then those institutions that are responsible for our safety, order and tranquility and more importantly our politicians, statesmen and popular figures should see this truth.
In this context, it is unacceptable for public organizations to sell guns in installments as we have experiences in 2007... It is not possible to understand how they can find it reasonable to attend open air ceremonies such as weddings, engagements, henna nights and circumcisions with a gun due to the reason They will not be able to find somewhere to place the gun. Members of our government giving guns to other members of our government as gift, surprises us and horrifies us. The Political point of view which accepts a gun as a present and ignores the social reactions and the citizens deserves heavy criticism.
If there is an understanding which sees personal armament unimportant and instigates it, there is something wrong here. And real responsibility of this wrong act belongs to us, citizens.
We bear in mind that our lives are not that cheap to end next to a barrel of a rifle! All kinds of value degeneration is experienced in a society where life is so worthless. But I believe there arent any problems which cannot be solved in a country where there is a strong non-governmental organization and where various sections of society collaborate.
As a mother who lost her son due to personal armament I would like to say that: I am resisting and counteracting...I know that strengthening our social unity against personal armament is the only way of preventing other children to be the target of worthless bullets. Please understand before fire hits other places: No reputation, no hour, no custom and no feud is more important and more valuable than human life!
We have gathered here once again today for September the 28th, Personal Disarmament Day. We will be silently protesting the guns in individuals hands and we will say Entitle Life. So happy to see that we are not alone again this year The Governorship of Istanbul and Beyoğlu Municipality contributed to The March of Silent Shoes by believing in the importance of this problem. Here we are going to leave a pair of shoes on the red carpet for our losses. On behalf of those we lost, we will put the photos of them and flowers on the blood-red carpet, which is a symbol of violence we curse
Please dont forget that every citizen who is aware of his/her responsibility owes them and their families an apology.
Saying No to personal armament is the duty of all individuals forming this society.
With hope for tomorrow