President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent a video message to the memorial ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima.
President Erdoğan said they were commemorating one of the darkest days in human history, the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, with great sorrow and pain.
Paying homage once again to the memories of the victims of this catastrophe, Erdoğan said:
"To the friendly people of Japan, to the loved ones of the victims who for 75 years have been trying to ease the pain in their hearts, I offer my condolences. We, Humanity, have to succeed in drawing lessons from this appalling event that happened in Hiroshima. As is engraved on the monument in the Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima should be the symbol of our determination “not to repeat the evil”. One of our poets thus conveys this in his poem dedicated to the memory of Sadako Sasaki, who became a symbol of the victims of Hiroshima: “It is me knocking doors, one by one. But your eyes cannot see me, for the dead cannot be seen. I died at Hiroshima, that was ten years ago. I am a girl of seven, dead children do not grow. My hair caught fire first, then my eyes burnt out. I became a handful of ashes, blown away by the wind. I don’t wish anything for myself from you. For a child who is burnt to cinders cannot even eat sweets. I am knocking at your doors, aunts, uncles, to get your signatures, so that never again children will burn, and so they can eat sweets.
Erdoğan stated that despite all the tragedy that unfolded in Hiroshima, in many countries, from Syria to Yemen, and Palestine, children continued to die, and to bear the brunt of the war on their tiny bodies, and added, "Death finds children, at times in a refugees’ boat, at times at the school desk, at times in the street, and at times where they feel the safest, in their mothers’ arms.”
Noting that, we had to lend an ear to the outcry rising from Hiroshima as our world still remained in the shadow of nuclear weapons, Erdoğan concluded his remarks as follows:
“For humanity not to suffer again a pain as shameful as that of 8 August 1945, for building a world worthy of human dignity for our children and the next generations, I would like to conclude my remarks by saying: Never Again! Once again, I would like to salute with respect all the residents of Hiroshima, the entire Japanese nation, and all participants of this ceremony.”