Voices from the Front: Turkish Soldiers on the War with the Kurdish Guerrillas [First Edition] 1403961204, 9781403961204, 9781403981882

Table of contents :
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
Foreword......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 14
Preface......Page 16
1 I Came Back Without Having Seen the Enemy......Page 26
2 A Twenty-Year-Old Youngster is Going…......Page 30
3 I Became a Soldier with a Beard......Page 34
4 If Soldiers Had the Opportunity, They Would Run Away......Page 40
5 To Escape Military Service, You Need to Stay Away From Bread......Page 44
6 The Donkey Was Looking at Me … Should I Shoot Him Right Here? I Asked Myself…......Page 48
7 It Is Up to the Poor to Protect the Homeland; the Rich know How to Go About It…......Page 56
8 My Mother Asks, "Where Is Muş?"......Page 64
9 I Slapped him Twice; He could not Understand Why He was Being Beaten…......Page 76
10 "I Have to Control My Nerves"......Page 82
11 Time Doesn't Pass There; It Is as if Time Has Frozen…......Page 92
12 The Greatest Advantage of the State Is to Send the Twenty-Year-Old Youth to the Region......Page 98
13 Another Reward for Being a Veteran Is that Nobody Lets You Marry Their Daughter......Page 106
14 At Least I Sort of Saved Myself......Page 112
15 On the One Hand, There Is Great Respect and Love, but on the Other, There Is Brutality......Page 120
16 1313: The Number Inscribed on My Arm......Page 124
17 I Love All Human Beings; Even the Terrorists We Captured......Page 132
18 We Took Out the Powder from Our Bullets and Inscribed Our Remaining Days......Page 138
19 I, Too, Lived that Festive Day......Page 148
20 You Can't Finish Your Military Service by Running Away from It; You Have to Go Through It......Page 154
21 Turkey's Balances Are Disturbed......Page 160
22 If I Knew an Alternative for Evading Military Service, I Would Advise the Youth to Take It......Page 166
23 I Definitely Wouldn't Send My Child into Military Service......Page 172
24 I Ordered the Soldier to Kill the Dog; There Was No Other Way......Page 180
25 What Would a Woman's Voice Do There? You Hear It because You Are Lonely…......Page 188
26 I Became a Terrorist, Like They Said, a Real Terrorist…......Page 198
27 Our Nickname among the Terrorists Was "Battalion of Bastards"......Page 204
28 I Didn't Live up to the Uniform I Wore......Page 214
29 They Call It the "Invisible Enemy": My Only Fear Was the Landmine and I Stepped on One…......Page 220
30 I Was Frightened. Instantly, I Thought of Death, of Dying…......Page 228
31 We Kept Asking, "Why Us?" But then We Realized that There Was No Way Out…......Page 234
32 Real Military Service Starts Here......Page 244
33 We Should Be the Ones Who Sanctify Life, not Death!......Page 252
34 Soldiers are the Ones Experiencing This Pain, I Mean the Conscripted Privates…......Page 260
35 Mother, I Survived Another Day......Page 268
36 These Were Moments When We Missed Death......Page 276
37 Am I an Idiot? Are the People Who Go There Idiots?......Page 284
38 While Everybody Is Sunbathing and Enjoying Themselves, We Go into an Operation!......Page 290
39 They Called Me "The Old Soldier"......Page 296
40 No Blood-for-Blood......Page 302
41 I Don't Even Own a Piece of Land as Big as This Ashtray; Which Land Am I Going to Defend?......Page 306
42 In Place of the Ones Who Cannot Talk......Page 316
43 Numbers…......Page 324
D......Page 332
K......Page 333
P......Page 334
Z......Page 335