Call to light candles to unite our mourning for the quake victims

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Two of the tens of thousands of people who lost their lives in the February 6 earthquakes were the lawyers Hatice Can and Mithat Can who had both dedicated their lives to the struggle for human rights in Türkiye.

Their son, Eren Can announced on February 10 that his mother and father were found dead.

Can called everyone to light a candle at 21:00 pm in order to mourn over those who we have lost in the February 6 earthquakes. In an invitation to "Unite our mournings," all citizens are called to light a candle at 21:00 for ten days in front of their windows.

Telling bianet why he is inviting everyone to united mourning, Can said, "I wish to invite all politicians and artists to join this campaign. In fact, this is what society needs. We have to unite our pain and carry it forward. We have to live our mourning."

"In order to unite our pain"

"One month passed from the earthquakes and unfortunately freedom of expression suffers greatly in Turkiye. Even the slightest opposition is risky at times. Therefore I thought of this campaign as a means for those who survive to share their feelings and where everyone can participate. There were examples of such joint action in the past.

Can is suggesting this joint action in order to unite people's pain and in order to find a symbol for our hopes for the future because he says, the candle also symbolizes hope.

He says that everybody had to do what they can after the earthquakes, trying to rescue their beloved from under the wreckage of buildings. And now people have to work on their own to try to find drinking water or tents to stay in.

Support from 145 authors

145 authors of Türkiye, including Ahmet Telli, Ayşegül Devecioğlu, Burhan Sönmez, Gaye Boralıoğlu, Semih Gümüş, Sevin Okyay, Sezai Sarıoğlu, Şebnem İşigüzel, and Zülfü Livaneli also invited people to support Eren Can's campaign.

They invited everyone to participate in the campaign "for all our people who lost their lives under the debris, for our destructed cities, for the flowers uprooted and for the birds whose voices are now gone, for our pain which is beyond description... For the thing that no one can take away from us, for our common pain, and in order to carry it to the future." (TY/PE)