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On the day of mothers last week, a day mothers all around the world are supposed to be showered with love and affection and kindness, two trucks loaded with explosives exploded in Reyhanlı, a province in Hatay, one of the 81 cities in Turkey.

It was initially announced that 45 people passed away.

Then the numbers started increasing, the day on our calenders was painted blood red; but also deep, dark black.

And then, the press was banned from reporting anything that happened or is happening in Reyhanlı. Censorship reared its ugly head.

While the whole country was waiting for the announcement of a national mourning, that very night, two of the countries best and most popular -and also arch rival- teams played a soccer game. And the game wasn't even that important because one of the teams had already declared their championship. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr were all engulfed by status updates supporting their teams. Only a couple cared about the increasing body count in Reyhanlı.

Three days later, university students protested what happened in Reyhanlı and the government's lack of interest in it. They were doused with tear gas, beaten by the police. They sat on the highway connecting two major parts of Ankara. They were wounded, first by the incidence, then by the ignorant and brutal cops. They were armed only by their hate towards terrorism and their love for their country. Nothing else. Yet they were attacked like they were the ones who killed those now-100 people in Reyhanlı; and the irony is that, the people really responsible for that were not being tried to be discovered, apparently, they weren't as dangerous as these university students.

And now, Turkey has forgotten. Like every event which happens, let it be something good or something bad, it is discussed in news programs, barber shops, market registers and streets one day, and in the next, it is forgotten. The government is desperately trying to change the agenda by trying to pass a law regarding the consumption of alcohol in restaurants in Turkey, and the media gladly took the bait.

But this time around, this procedure was catalyzed. We were forced to forget, or rather, we were not reminded. The newspapers, the evening, morning news broadcasts could not mention anything about this event. I don't think they would want to, anyway. Forgive and forget, right?

Tomorrow is the 19th of May which is the National Youth and Sports Day in Turkey. That day in 1919, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk set foot on land in the heart of Anatolia, and began the war for national independence, the resistance was afoot. Later, in 1938, Atatürk rewarded this special day to the youth of Turkey to whom he tied all of his hopes to. And suddenly, the government which did not bother to declare national mourning on the day of the event and sent its president to the USA to discuss some "critical" matters with Barack Obama while the president's country was soaked with the blood of innocent people, terror and fright, decided to cancel the celebrations of Youth and Sports Day because of the incidence in Reyhanlı. In the time we need to get together as a country and celebrate, unite, stand behind our country and democracy and everything that Atatürk trusted us, the youth of Turkey, with, we cannot. We are not allowed to.

I've blamed everything on the government of Turkey in my post here, but do not be mistaken, the people under the goverment, us, need to get half the blame. The day of the Boston bombings, most of my friends wrote condolence messages, RIP's on their precious Facebook Timelines, for three dead and 246 injured halfway across the world, but when that bloody Sunday rushed in, I saw nothing; nothing on my news feed, it wasn't talked about in Twitter, the same friends who "wished patience" to the injured ones in Boston posted "congratz" messages for their team for the soccer game that night. Of course what happened in Boston was horrible and it should not happen ever again and we are all sorry about it, but when an event of similar sort happens in your country with two hundred times the death toll, you should be able to be sorry about it as well, if not more. You should care about the dead people and the orphan children in Turkey as much as you did about the people in the US, if not more. You should, we should, because it is our country, our people.

Ignorance is being forced into our brains right now, and even though some people, like those university students or the people who organized this protest walk to the parliament building which will take place tomorrow are resisting against it, the media, the important people of the country, its celebrities, its athletes, are not. In fact, most people are not. And now, a week has passed, and still there are bodies being taken out from under the wreckage, the debris, at first by the people themselves because the government did not send any help, and everyone has already forgotten. Maybe not totally erased from their brains, maybe there is still a crumb of care and sorrow somewhere in their hearts when they are at their brunch on the side of the Bosporus with their friends and family.

All I can say is that, they cannot make everyone forget about it, about their mistakes, about their ignorance. Even if they ban the media and not allow congressman into the province, some of us will simply not forget. At least, we will try not to, and stay true to our nation and our values we fought so hard for only a hundred years ago. To every children who has lost their parents on that Sunday, to every mother who has lost her son, to every bride who lost her groom, to every sister who has lost her brother, I present my deepest condolences.

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