S.'s notes from last week I guess:
Obligatory military service started in 1927 by the decision of the National Assembly. The only significant debate was about the obligatory military service possibility for the women of the nation.
Last week I was ordered to go to the Conscription Order Office of the Turkish Armed Forces by my own family. As I was not registered in state records in the place I was born and raised, I had to go to the city my father was proudly registered in. It seemed that he was much excited and proud. However I was very anxious and nervous
As a matter of fact I was already trying to adapt myself to the upcoming destiny for the last weeks. I made a horrifying visit to the screening of the film "Nefes / Breath", the new block-buster movie in Turkey. The movie was showing the "actual" happenings in a military border station in South-Eastern Turkey in 1993. It was showing the great contradictions in Turkish political reality and Turkish military.
"Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.." Jean-Paul Sartre
***
What he also wanted to mention is that there was one women in 1930s in Turkish Air Forces. She was also first female combat pilot in the world - I'm talking about Sabiha Gokcen. She got her first medals for her great dedication to the operation in Dersim. In the "war with feudalism," between 1937-38 few thousands (of course the number changes depending on a source - so let's skip the numbers) Alevi Kurds were massacered. Dersim ceased to exist and until now it was Tunceli ("Tunc" means "bronze" and "el" means "hand, power, possesion") - of course the reason for a change was that "Dersim" was not a Turkish word. And tunc eli refers to national myths etc. making newely conquered/massacered land truly "Turkish" and "civilized." The irony is that second airport in Istanbul carries Sabiha's name - the first female combat pilot who participated in mass murder. (Of course only Kurds call it a "massacre").
***
And speaking of the conscription - S. signed statement that he wants to join the army, which means he basically volunteered. In a way he was ordered to volunteer.
Posts
and where was S. volunteered to go?
ReplyDelete