Voices from the Front Turkish Soldiers on the War with the Kurdish Guerrillas

by Mater, Nadire; Altinay, Ayse Gül; Enloe, Cynthia

• ISBN13: 9781403961204
• ISBN10: 1403961204
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-11
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

These riveting first-hand accounts of Turkish soldiers who have fought in the internal war against Kurdish guerillas speak to universals: the shock of entering military life and the traumas of warfare; the changes in personality and relations with family and friends; the lingering emotional effects of violence; and the difficulties in returning to the "real world." Mater's reportage is in the best tradition of revealing the surreal, illuminating the universal truth of war's devastation. At a time when American troops are again caught in a vicious insurgency, the Kurdish issue has high visibility, and Turkey is a major actor in the Middle East, the experiences of these former soldiers resonate.

Author Biography

Nadire Mater is a leading Turkish journalist who has frequently covered children's rights, human rights, women's rights, minorities and freedom of expression issues.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
Preface	1	(10)
I Came Back Without Having Seen the Enemy	11	(4)
A Twenty-Year-Old Youngster is Going . . .	15	(4)
I Became a Soldier with a Beard	19	(6)
If Soldiers Had the Opportunity, They Would Run Away	25	(4)
To Escape Military Service, You Need to Stay Away From Bread	29	(4)
The Donkey Was Looking at Me . . . Should I Shoot Him Right Here? I Asked Myself	33	(8)
It Is Up to the Poor to Protect the Homeland; the Rich know How to Go About It . . .	41	(8)
My Mother Asks, ``Where Is Mus?''	49	(12)
I Slapped him Twice; He could not Understand Why He was Being Beaten . . .	61	(6)
``I Have to Control My Nerves''	67	(10)
Time Doesn't Pass There; It Is as if Time Has Frozen . . .	77	(6)
The Greatest Advantage of the State Is to Send the Twenty-Year-Old Youth to the Region	83	(8)
Another Reward for Being a Veteran Is that Nobody Lets You Marry Their Daughter	91	(6)
At Least I Sort of Saved Myself	97	(8)
On the One Hand, There Is Great Respect and Love, but on the Other, There Is Brutality	105	(4)
1313: The Number Inscribed on My Arm	109	(8)
I Love All Human Beings; Even the Terrorists We Captured	117	(6)
We Took Out the Powder from Our Bullets and Inscribed Our Remaining Days	123	(10)
I, Too, Lived that Festive Day	133	(6)
You Can't Finish Your Military Service by Running Away from It; You Have to Go Through It	139	(6)
Turkey's Balances Are Disturbed	145	(6)
If I Knew an Alternative for Evading Military Service, I Would Advise the Youth to Take It	151	(6)
I Definitely Wouldn't Send My Child into Military Service	157	(8)
I Ordered the Soldier to Kill the Dog; There Was No Other Way	165	(8)
What Would a Woman's Voice Do There? You Hear It because You Are Lonely . . .	173	(10)
I Became a Terrorist, Like They Said, a Real Terrorist . . .	183	(6)
Our Nickname among the Terrorists Was ``Battalion of Bastards''	189	(10)
I Didn't Live up to the Uniform I Wore	199	(6)
They Call It the ``Invisible Enemy'': My Only Fear Was the Landmine and I Stepped on One . . .	205	(8)
I Was Frightened. Instantly, I Thought of Death, of Dying . . .	213	(6)
We Kept Asking, ``Why Us?'' But then We Realized that There Was No Way Out . . .	219	(10)
Real Military Service Starts Here	229	(8)
We Should Be the Ones Who Sanctify Life, not Death!	237	(8)
Soldiers are the Ones Experiencing This Pain, I Mean the Conscripted Privates . . .	245	(8)
Mother, I Survived Another Day	253	(8)
These Were Moments When We Missed Death	261	(8)
Am I an Idiot? Are the People Who Go There Idiots?	269	(6)
While Everybody Is Sunbathing and Enjoying Themselves, We Go into an Operation!	275	(6)
They Called Me ``The Old Soldier''	281	(6)
No Blood-for-Blood	287	(4)
I Don't Even Own a Piece of Land as Big as This Ashtray; Which Land Am I Going to Defend?	291	(10)
In Place of the Ones Who Cannot Talk	301	(8)
Numbers . . .	309	(8)
Index	317