Selçuk Bayraktar, Chairman of the Board of Baykar, stated in an article written for the Al Jazeera news outlet, "If we want to tell our children in 20 years that we stood up for a just world, we must start today by taking even the smallest step toward goodness."
Bayraktar wrote an English-language article on Palestine issue for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news outlet.
In the article titled "Support Palestine for a Just World," Bayraktar noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to the U.S. Congress, dismissed international criticism of Israel, which has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, where 40,000 men, women, children, and babies were killed.
Bayraktar said, "Furthermore, Netanyahu, who stands behind his government's policies of genocide and annihilation, was repeatedly given standing ovations by America's leading politicians, even as he refused to signal an end to the bloodshed in the near future. If Satan and his minions descended and performed a ritual, they would not be as bold. Scientific evidence points to the fact that God created the Earth 4 billion years ago. The world has been destroyed and rebuilt countless times. Over the past 200,000 years, humanity has established institutions and organizations to learn from past mistakes, maintain peace, and ensure order. Agreements have been written for this purpose."
Bayraktar emphasized that what distinguishes humanity from other living beings is the ability to accumulate knowledge and pass it on to future generations, saying: "Unlike beavers who have been building the same dam for a million years, we have the ability to accumulate knowledge and pass it on to future generations. It is therefore alarming that the words of Antonio Gramsci in 1932, just before World War II, still resonate today: 'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.' Humanity has returned to the starting point a century later. Despite creating institutions and texts advocating for peace and justice, such as the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, today we witness the first genocide being broadcast live."
"Never before in history have the sufferings in Palestine been so unparalleled. The Palestinian people, who for 75 years have embodied the moral duty to resist injustice, are showing the courage to survive before a global audience," Bayraktar noted, adding:
"The Palestinian resistance represents humanity's struggle for justice, as depicted in a poem I dearly love: 'You are the hero of humanity resisting among steel teeth.' It is an undeniable fact that the struggle for justice and a better world deeply resonates in our collective consciousness. As another poem poignantly states: 'I know that to live is to fight for children under a clear sky.'"
Bayraktar said that this is not just a theoretical ideal but a practical necessity that humanity must adopt to prevent the repetition of historical evils and build a just and peaceful world, underlining: "About 20 years ago, when I was a research assistant at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), a group of students and I came together to raise awareness about the Palestinian struggle. We planned to put up posters, show informative films, and distribute flyers. The inaction that prevents the international community from taking meaningful steps today was evident back then in questions like: 'What will change if we do this? Will this stop the bleeding that has continued for decades?' While these doubts are understandable, they were ultimately wrong. Small actions may not immediately show their impact or be apparent, but they can contribute to a broader movement for awareness and change. Today, protests are sweeping through the U.S. and Europe, even at the world's most prestigious schools like Harvard, MIT, and Columbia."
Whether through organized events or individual efforts, Bayraktar indicated that such actions contribute to the larger struggle for justice, stating: "We are not just passive observers. We are active participants in shaping the moral fabric of our societies. The change we seek must start within ourselves. As I told my friends 20 years ago, resistance and struggle do not belong solely to the heroes on the front lines. They also serve as a means for those left behind to transform inertia into action. The ultimate goal is to build a world where our children can grow up safely and with dignity. To achieve this, a collective effort is needed to restore justice, challenge oppression, and defend peace. The poem continues: 'Because if we do not fight, the flannel my mother wears, the loaf we share at the table, the warm speckles of my childhood, will spread like open wounds; our flesh will rot, and we will pollute the sky.' This will be the result if we do not take action. So, what is necessary for humanity to stop paving the way for such an apocalypse? Let's continue reading the poem: 'The world is turning with an unpolluted stubbornness, stars are spread beneath us; my face rushes to the water and returns.'"
Bayraktar pointed out that the Palestinian people fulfill their duty by resisting, "Those who need to change are the rest of us. Not just the handful of people standing up for justice in Palestine. If the rest do not change, the world cannot be saved. If we want to tell our children in 20 years that we stood up for a just world, we must start today by taking even the smallest step toward goodness."
