Turkish soldier claims to be guinea pig in military experiment

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

ISTANBUL – Radikal

'They attached cables to different parts of my body and electrocuted me,' said Alabay. DHA photo

A soldier from Turkey’s eastern Şanlıurfa province has claimed that he was experimented on at the Gülhane Military Medical Academy, or GATA, and lost function of entire right side of his body. The General Staff has denied the claims.

Five months after he joined the military Fevzi Alabay experienced swelling in his hands. Alabay was first sent to the infirmary and then taken to GATA, three month ago.

Alabay claims he did not sign documents put in front of him as he is illiterate, and was then experimented on. “The doctors at GATA said the swelling was neurological and I was kept bedridden in the neurology ward. Once my body reacted to the medicine they said I would receive physical therapy. Instead they attached cables to different parts of my body and electrocuted me,” said Alabay. He was kept in a room for four days and continually received injections.

There were other soldiers experimented on too, Alabay said. “Six soldiers died during the experiments and were taken from the hospital secretly. If my family did not find me, I might have died.”

Once his family located him, the soldier had already been at GATA for 68 days. When he left he was given a month-long health leave that requested a change of scene. “I do not know whether I will heal, but I am afraid to return to the military,” said Alabay, who has no function in half of his body except for his hand.

The soldier’s family said they located Alabay after they saw him on TV. Some soldiers at GATA were using high-level electromagnetic fields to determine a patient’s diagnosis and broadcast the footage, which featured Alabay.

Alabay was serving in the Istanbul Metris 47th Motorized Infantry Troop.

The Turkish General Staff said the medical process applied to the patient was carried out according to basic treatment principles. The claims of carrying out experimental treatment within the clinic and causing the death of soldiers as a result are unrealistic, said an official statement on the website of the Turkish General Staff.

“The soldier Fevzi Alabay was continually informed both verbally and in writing and he was not forced to take a treatment outside of his will. In every stage of the treatment, the patient's approval was taken and his undergoing faintness during the treatment is out of the question," said the statement.

"In reverse of what the patient claimed, he did not under go an electromagnetic application or an experimental medical treatment. Furthermore, the views of the patient were never taken under oath," said the statement.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=8216i-was-experimented-in-gata8217-claims-a-soldier-2011-04-26

Turkish-Armenian conscript was killed on 24th April 2011.

Turkish-Armenian soldier to be laid to rest Wednesday

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

ISTANBUL – Daily News with wires

A Turkish-Armenian soldier who died Sunday when his friend’s gun allegedly discharged accidentally will be laid to rest Wednesday in Istanbul’s Şişli district.

Sevag Şahin Balıkçı had only 23 days left on his military service in the southeastern province of Batman when he was allegedly shot by mistake by his friend as the two were joking around, daily Radikal reported Tuesday.

Sevag Balıkçı and other soldiers at the garrison were trying to fix the surrounding fences damaged by floods and were joking with each other when his best friend’s weapon discharged a bullet that struck the soldier in the stomach.

The Gendarmerie General Command announced Tuesday that it was planning to invite the dead private’s family to the police station where he died for a private meeting with his commanders and friends, Anatolia news agency reported.

An official ceremony was organized Monday for the dead soldier in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

An account of the event sent to the family by the military said the soldier had died “a martyr.”

“I don’t see my son as a martyr. A martyr does not die from a bullet in an accident,” the soldier’s father, Garabet Balıkçı, told daily Radikal.

While many media outlets noted that the incident occurred on April 24, the day Armenians remember their kin who were killed during World War I in the Ottoman Empire, the soldier’s family members have refused to relate the two events to one another.

“It is a pity that the press is emphasizing the subject by connecting my son’s death with the anniversary of the 1915 events,” Garabet Balıkçı told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Tuesday.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=armenian-soldier-died-of-friend8217s-carelessness-on-april-24-2011-04-26

EU nations continue to phase out military conscription

Does military conscription still have a place in Europe?

Much of Europe has done away with compulsory military service, or made heavy cut-backs. Of the 27 EU member states, 21 already make do without conscription. So does the rest of Europe still need the draft?

Many European countries, as well as most members of the transatlantic NATO military alliance, have already done away with compulsory military service. Of the 28 NATO countries, 23 have full-time professional armies, and 21 of the 27 European Union nations have abolished the draft. The latest to do so is Sweden, which ended conscription on June 30.

Alongside Turkey, Germany remains the only major NATO country that sill requires its young men to serve in the military. Conscription also still exists in Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece and Norway.

At 26 months, the longest required military service in Europe is on the island of Cyprus. Denmark's conscription seems by contrast to be impractically short, at just 4 months. However, conscription there is only employed if there is a shortage of volunteer recruits.

It has not been that long since the draft was the norm in Europe. During the Cold War and into the 1990s, compulsory military service existed in nearly every European country. Even after the constant threat of the Cold War subsided, several European states did immediately move to strike conscription. France, for example, only got rid of it in 2001. In Italy and the Netherlands, the draft has been put on hold.

Outside EU and NATO territories, compulsory service remains in Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Professional soldiers preferred

Cyprus has the longest compulsory service in the EU

Many countries experience difficulty finding enough recruits to fill their military. Another problem with getting rid of the draft is that professional armies are more expensive than those with conscripts.

Yet most national armies in the EU have shrunk to leaner, professional armies, and these do carry several advantages. Professional soldiers are generally better trained, more specialized and far more efficient than conscripts. They are also easier to deploy on overseas missions.

From Hammurabi to the French Revolution

Professional soldiers can be more easily deployed overseas

Modern conscription originated in post-revolutionary France, where in 1793, the French National Assembly marshaled an army of 300,000 soldiers from the provinces. However, forced recruitment dates back to the beginnings of civilization; draft dodging was even outlawed by the Code of Hammurabi.

In today's world, nearly all countries that require military service also have alternative requirements for those who object to taking up arms. Within NATO the exception to this rule is Turkey, where compulsory service lasts 15 months with no allowance for conscientious objection.

Author: Bernd Riegert (dl)
Editor: Rob Turner

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5749541,00.html?maca=en-newsofeurope-eu-1528-rdf