Tonight is an important night for many families and many young ladies in Turkey. Thousands of new recruits, young boys around the age of 20, will join their units for their military service tomorrow morning. In the small town that I am curently in, the streets are as if it is a festivity. Big drums and clarinets are being played and people are chanting and dancing in the cold, saying good-bye to their sons.

I know there are some young non-Turkish ladies, in this group, sharing this night of excitement with us Turks.

I hope the boys will go, then come safely back....with full honors !

rite of passage?tribal feast????

I thought this was supposed to be only four times a year but loads of recruits were sent off in early November, and I also saw it at a bus station a few weeks after that. Cars driving around town honking the horns like at other parties. The bus station was crowded with families saying goodbye, the young to-be soldiers with turkish flags wrapped around them, being tossed up in the air, everyone yelling out the current slogan "şehitler ölmez vatan bölünmez".

And then when they go to army they find out they are in for 15 months in hell. One of the newbies at the karakol my husband is at shot himself a few days ago. The other soldiers were then later shown pictures of the rest of his head. Ya şu türk askerlik var ya... he should never have gone there, not everyone is cut out for it, no matter how much they are cheered on with army slogans.
May they all come home safely...but they don't, unfortunately.

that may be true from your husband's point of view...but not from ours, Azade...better watch your language.

I'm not saying anything out of the box here, this is facts. I'm sorry that it is so, but it is. The young man killed himself because soldier life was too hard for him. It's the third, THIRD my husband has witnessed in just 13 months. I think it's devastating; can this be right??
It is really hard to go through army service in Turkey (unless you're lucky and go to a nice place), and certaintly the young men should be prepared better for it. filling them with slogans is no help, because şehitler DO die. They shouldn't be fed with illusions because reality is cruel, terrorists may be lurking around the corner. it's no business for newbies. IMHO.
Why is it that millions and millions of young men are forced - read forced - to go risk their lives? It's should be for professionals, not young kids.

Look, I served in this army and my son served in this army - partly because we felt it was our responsibility to protect you and your husband's sisters.

It is not on to chicken out and cry in complaints, when it is his turn to serve. It is his own honor, do you think Turkish Army desparately needs his services?

I strongly doubt if her interest is in the society she, or her family, are living in...