Turkish main opposition leader pens letter to WHO, UN with poet Nazım Hikmet's words

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has penned a letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations with Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet's words.

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In the letter, Kılıçdaroğlu stressed the importance of international cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, saying that the measures and treatments of a country effects the others.

He also urged the UN to declare March 11, which is the date that the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, as the "World Struggle and Solidarity Day Against Pandemic."

Saying that the cooperation among countries should not be limited to the healthcare area, Kılıçdaroğlu noted that the acceptance of March 11 as the said day would constitute the beginning of the humanity's obligation to build a common future.

"We need to build a new future that inequalities and injustices in the distribution of wealth between the countries is decreased to the minimum level. We need to plan this new future by taking all living beings into account and not just humanity," he said in the letter.

He also cited lines from Hikmet's famous poem "On Living."

"Living is no laughing matter: you must take it seriously. So much so and to such a degree that, for example, your hands tied behind your back, your back to the wall, or else in a laboratory in your white coat and safety glasses you can die for people - even for people whose faces you've never seen."