By Nikos Mottas.
The powerful and destructive earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday brought memories from the 17 August 1999 earthquake (7.6 magnitude earthquake) in Turkey's Kocaeli province, causing approximately 18,000 deaths.
Two days later, on 19 August, the front page (photo) of the party newspaper of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) “Rizospastis” was reading: “Stay strong my comrade Mehmet”. It was an article written by journalist Pavlos Rizargiotis, emphasizing on the proletarian solidarity expressed by the workers and the people of Greece towards their neighbors. Freely translated, the article, a magnificent sample of internationalist solidarity, was the following:
Stay strong my comrade Mehmet