I am not a partisan when it comes to politics, I am not a nationalist when it comes to the country, but I am a fanatic when it comes to sports, especially football.
When the team I support (Galatasaray) loses a game, I lose almost all my cheerfulness and I don't feel like doing anything else. Being aware of this bad habit of mine, I did not want my nephews to be interested in football as spectators, and if they were interested, I did not want them to become fanatical fans.
After spending most of last season in the relegation zone, Galatasaray managed to stay in the league. This season, however, the team, which has a new face, has managed to win its last 12 matches in the Turkish Super League after a poor start.
The 12 consecutive victories set a record in the history of the league, most recently defeating Trabzonspor, the previous year's champion, with a score of 2 - 1.
With 17 wins and 3 draws in 22 matches, the team is at the top with 54 points. It is 9 points ahead of its closest pursuer Fenerbahçe with one match less. He is this year's biggest champion candidate and there is great hope in the team that the winning streak will continue.
On the night of 5 February, after watching the Galatasaray - Trabzonspor match with my friends on a specially installed giant screen and returning home with the enthusiasm of the win, I started to watch sports programs on television.
In sports programs on television, the match is often critiqued, referee decisions are questioned, and post-match interviews are shown on the screen. The aim was not to hear a review of the match I was watching or to learn how the referee's decisions would be questioned. I can do these things myself with the football knowledge I have. It was to see what has changed in the sports programs I haven't watched for a long time.
After the short analysis and reviews of the matches played, it was time for the Fenerbahçe - Konyaspor match to be played on Monday, February 6. The news started to spread that due to the snowfall and storms in Istanbul and Konya, where the match would be played, the flights at the airports were disrupted and Konyaspor football players would not be able to come to Istanbul for the match.
Each commentator used their own intelligence to predict whether the match would be played or postponed. Towards the end of the program, it was announced that the plane carrying the Konyaspor technical staff and players had taken off and was on its way to Istanbul, so the match would be played.
Since it was already past midnight on February 6, I arranged my work for the next day to watch Fenerbahçe play Fenerbahçe, the biggest rival of Galatasaray, the team I support, and went to sleep, obeying the call of my tired body.
In the morning, I woke up to the news of the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit the south of my country and 10 provinces in total. Thousands have lost their lives, tens of thousands have been injured and hundreds of thousands are homeless, struggling with the cold.
At that moment, I realize how worthless the things we value so much in life have become. The sentences of those who predicted the night before whether the Fenerbahçe - Konyaspor match would be postponed or not become meaningless. Yes, the match was postponed! And not only the Fenerbahçe - Konyaspor match, but all national sports competitions have been postponed until further notice!
...but the reason is not bad weather conditions! For the extraordinary disaster in 10 provinces where more than 5 thousand buildings collapsed, around 3500 lives were lost and more than 20 thousand injured!
When we don't know what will happen in a few seconds, is there a need for hurtful sentences for the sake of simple tasks and small calculations? While we cannot accept the possibility of a match being postponed due to bad weather conditions, in the face of another disaster, all sports competitions have to be postponed indefinitely. And it inevitably comes to mind; when will we learn that the priority is human health?
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