Seven fallen soldiers, seven families, seven different dwellings, seven different cities. It’s clear that just as the names of the cities and the soldiers are different, so are the names, ages and dreams of the members of these families. But they have an excruciating shared characteristic that unites them all: Each of these families is in a state of abject and indescribable poverty. What a coincidence!These are the impoverished families of the fallen soldiers who grew up surrounded by poverty. One example is the family of Sgt. Serdar Yeşilyurt of Adana’s Kozan district, who was killed in Van. It seems that until their son was killed, they had been in a state of poverty so profound that it is difficult to put into words. Apparently, after the news of Serdar’s death came around, the district’s mayor finally realized the condition the family was living in. He took the members of the family -- whose cheeks are sunken deep into their faces from hunger or malnutrition, and who were dressed in threadbare clothing -- to a store that he had opened in the middle of the night. He dressed the family members from head to toe, the family members who were the next day to perform their final duty to their son and sibling. He got them new clothing so that Kozan’s image would not be ruined, so that there would be no images of ugliness amidst the scene of military officers dressed in sharp uniforms and shined boots bearing the coffin draped in the national flag. How lovely.
What a shame it is that these images aren’t the first of their kind. And they’re also no coincidence. For we’ve seen the same thing in the past, time and time again. We’ve seen barefoot mothers and sisters dressed in ripped shalwar following the coffin of their son or brother who was killed in conflict. I think it was a year or two ago when the absolute poverty of such a family made it into a newspaper headline following the soldier’s killing: “It seems that all he had was his life, and that he gave to the country.” The place then was Şanlıurfa’s Siverek district. The poverty, though, was the same. A household without a father, the fallen soldier was the only breadwinner in the family, the only person to look after his ailing mother and siblings in their jerrybuilt shanty of a home. The time for his military service came around, and to the military he went. Without receiving any share in this country’s blessings and at a tender young age, he had left his poor family for a deeper form of poverty, and gave his life for his country. Verily, all this poor young man had was his very life, and the country took that.
As a headline in yesterday’s Taraf daily said, this dirty war is “the war of impoverished children.” For whatever reason, those who die within the military’s ranks are always poor children. I’m sure that the same goes for the PKK. As poor children die, as they kill one another, it becomes clear that the lowlifes driving this conflict did a good job setting it up. It is because of these scoundrels’ thirst for power, money and influence that the lives of those who have had no chance to live a real life are being blackened one by one. Be they Kurd or Turk, for some reason in this disgusting war it is always the poor children that die.
Honestly, have you ever seen a funeral for a slain soldier in a well-to-do district of İstanbul, Ankara or İzmir? Have you heard of a fallen soldier whose home was in Teşvikiye, Moda, Levent, Etiler, Bebek, Nişantaşı, Çankaya or similar areas? Don’t misunderstand -- of course I wouldn’t want for such funerals to start being held in these areas; may everyone be spared from losing a child, and may no mothers have to cry. But isn’t there a contradiction in all of this? Why is it that when it comes to the topic of alternatives to bloodshed and violence in the search for a solution to the Kurdish problem, the most opposition to such efforts comes from these districts, where those from the luckier social ranks primarily live and where no native sons are ever lost in battle? Isn’t there something off about all this? Why is it always poor children dying in this dirty war, whether they are Kurdish or Turkish? Why?
It’s clear that rich and powerful Kurds find ways to keep their children from the conflict-ridden mountains. It’s clear that rich and powerful Turks find ways to avoid sending their sons to the military or to ensure their deployment to no-conflict zones. Left to die are the poor children who have the smallest share in all the good this country has to offer. This despicable injustice of this despicable war has been going on for years. And there are even such people that even attempt to capitalize on the funerals of those children from those families, those children that they so readily and remorselessly spend.
If you don’t believe me, look at the faces, one by one, of those who oppose the democratic initiative that they have been cooperating with one another to try and ruin. Among them you will not see any of the poor people who have lost their lives, blood and hopes in this dirty war. You will only see those who don’t care about bloodshed, in fact the lowlifes that thrive off of this. You will see lowlifes who recommend nothing but violence to resolve violence, who are anti-democratization, who sanctify the militarism and who want more bloodshed and death to solve problems.
It’s a shame what is happening to the children of this country. And even more shameful is what is happening to those impoverished children who have barely seen a decent day in their brief lives. Gentlemen, don’t let this happen to the children.
