Rest in peace, dear Russian pilot

BELGİN AKALTAN - belgin.akaltan@hdn.com.tr

REUTERS photo

My heart goes out to you and your family. There is no rational explanation for why you died. The circumstances of the downing of your plane are murky and the way you were killed is beyond the comprehension of an average human being. It will be very difficult for us to explain your death to your grandchildren, if not your children.On this land and on neighboring lands we are going through an extraordinary period. It is as if a dark cloud is above us covering this region as well as certain brains.It is undefinable. Some kind of ill-fate has stricken us.Dear Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov and dear Peshkov family, you are not our enemy. You are not my enemy. You will never be our enemy. I pray for you and I pray for your wife, children and friends.Dear Colonel Peshkov, as soon as this dark cloud leaves this region, there will be parks and streets named after you, I am so sure of that. Count on my word. It will not take long. I will be writing about it here, dear colonel; we will lay flowers on the memorial park named “Yarbay Oleg Peşkov.”I know that your family and friends, and also people in your hometown Lipetsk and your entire country, hate Turks for now, but do not hate us. It is not us; it is not the ordinary Turks who caused your death. Who actually killed you is a huge question mark; let’s not go into that in this non-political piece. This piece is about the genuine feelings of ordinary, civilized Turkish people.You died for nothing. You did not die for your country; you did not die for our country. You died at a place that is neither your country nor my country. You died by eight bullets fired from the ground. It is highly probably that those eight bullets that killed you were Russian-made and came from a Russian-made weapon.Your countrymen and your colleagues would know this better than I. There seems to be another dark cloud over your country also.If I could, I would take those eight bullets out of your body and give you your life back. If I could I would show those eight bullets to those who fired them (and also those who sold/sent those weapons to them). I wish I could take those eight bullets and put them back into the Russian weapon they came from.Dear Colonel Peshkov, the Peshkov family, dear townsfolk of Lipetsk... there is another thing I beg you to please keep in your mind and in your soul…This is coming from a Muslim woman, a journalist from Turkey… Please note that no religion in the world, no belief, no regular army, even no ordinary resistance force would order or tolerate gunning down a parachuting pilot. This comes from sick, twisted minds using religion for their own interests. This kind of act is not present in any religious book, any holy thought or in any philosophy. It is not in the rules or regulations of any army or resistance force. It is only in the mind of these monsters that have been created by again, very murky circumstances…I have Russian friends here; I have been to your beautiful country. We have friends married to Russian people; we have Turkish students at your universities. Turkish people we know who live in Russia are telling us they walk the streets with their heads down, in shame. We are all so sorry and full of shame of what has happened.I am positive the Turkish military officer who fired the missile that shot your plane down is also sorry.Dear Mrs. Peshkov, I cannot get you back your husband but here are genuine tears shed for you, your husband and your children from a fellow wife and mother from Turkey.Please come and visit us when we open the memorial park named after your husband. I want to meet you and I want our children to meet each other. In better days…belgin.akaltan@hdn.com.trhttps://twitter.com/belginakaltanbelgin.akaltan.com