Erkan in the military service

Uneventful two weeks.

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Oh boy, I could not find time to update my blog. Time passes so quickly when I am in the civilian life. Answering most of emails and facebook comments left me no time. Seeing my daily visits decrease to mere 25 kills me:) My blog success disappears (!). I have had an uneventful 2-week period. … Read more

Roj xelat* – Erkan is all right now. No more worries.

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*Dawn is born (In Kurdish) I see this wall writing on the cabin where I do my watch near a small prison. Most of the soldiers are Kurdish origined and I guess a guy doing his 04-06 watch had written that when the dawn was born:) My dear readers, I am sorry for all the pessimistic writing recently. I could not … Read more

Beşiktaş Champion and I am still living the nightmare…

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It was a very upsetting night. Beşiktaş became the  champion and I could not feel happy because of the conditions I was in. I find myself in the best internet cafe of the town in this Saturday morning and relying on fizy.org I try to relax in listening to Lamb of God and Manowar. These … Read more

This is a nightmare and but I will survive…

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 I have been teaching for six years, I know something about pedagogy and I know military life is different but still there is something pedagogically wrong here and I have to survive in this concentration camp for 115 more days…There is a little possibility that I will be transferred to another station. By the next … Read more

The second and the last stage begins…

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Dear Friends, 28 days of beginner’s training ended yesterday and we were relocated to stations where we will stay for the rest of our military service. Hopefully until September 17…Not all together of course. Every station got 2-3 friends.   Our last days were really enjoyable. After washing the lunch dishes… This is my first and last … Read more

Erkan has an unexpected half a day break

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From 10 am to  4 pm we are let to breath freedom again.

I had a good breakfast in the town center and then I rushed back to an internet cafe. I wasn’t expecting a break before 9 May but here we are. This is a short but still refreshing break.

As promised, our service time has become more comfortable. Our commanders tend to be more tolerant. However, some among us continously break rules which leads to collective punishment:(

Another film to remember: Das Experiment (2001) What happens when you gather and close down so many boys together…. Observable tension. Thanks god we will be distributed soon…

Yesterday, I could read nearly half of the day since it was an offical holiday (1 May- Labor Day). A very happy day.  I have three books that were confirmed by the officials here:

Romantic Motives: Essays on Anthropological…
Complete Short Fiction (Penguin Classics)
Oscar Wilde

 

In Kastamonu town center, I am in an internet cafe. I am so thirsty for metal music, so i decided to listen to i.e. Exodus’s "Pleasures of the Flesh" at Fizy.org. But since the album includes "obscene" keywords, I am not let to listen to this album. Cafe software is very alert… F**k this social conservatism!

First things in my life: I used a real gun for the first time in my life. It appears that I am not a good shooter at all:( I was not the worst one but my performance is certainly below the average. One out of 6 bullets could not be found at all.

I had to wash my socks since the canteen was out of stocks. However, they were still wet so I borrowed a new pair of socks from a friends.

There is the military accessoires industry here and I will buy what I need from those stores. They even rent cell phones!

Friends around me is the best thing here. I am making some life-long friendships.

We collected money for the poor young long-terms.

There is news that this short term military service will be cancelled and beginning with December 2009, there will be 12 month service…. I am glad I will be free before that. And in any case, that does not affect us. However, when you are contained and you have little access to news, rumors and speculations make life harder. In our ward, we did forbid talk of longer term service. even though a joke is intended. We do not need a joke that implies a longer service…

@hans: military life is the most difficult thing. I can live without being online for a while:) Although I could not think that before.

@ariane: Turks are best at making life difficult for themselves.

@celil: I am soooo glad to hear that. Forza Beşiktaş!

Opppsss Shuttle arrives soon. I have to rush.

See you on May 9!

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Going offline again…

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My weekend leave comes to an end in a few hours. We were given a leave after the Oath ceremony and I have been a civilian again from Friday noon to Sunday afternoon. We were not supposed to leave Kastamonu so my life was spent in the town center, in a hotel. My dear friend … Read more

Erkan ends up the first and the hardest part in his military service…

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Our division gets ready to start the Oath Ceremony.    Oath takes place on the flag and the gun (We use AK-47 machines guns a.k.a. Kalashnikov)   I am 33 and still my parents have to come to get permission for the weekend leave. Military rules. Now they are gone, I stay in a hotel … Read more

Erkan now goes offline.

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Please come back from time to time and check back how Erkan survives. Check the countdown on the upper right hand side.   My dear friend, Can Avcı, will take care of the comments section; will approve your valuable comments from time to time…   

Towards the service (Part III)

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I got the courage to ask the commander of the local Military Office if I could bring some stuff to read. He told me I can if that’s not overtly political, however he added:
"let me not discourage you but if you find any time at all, you will prefer to sleep instead of reading in your first month of training"….I still intend to bring some book with me. If I can find it at the bookstores in Taksim, I will take Anathem (by Neal Stephenson) with me. A very long novel. It will take months to finish:) I will think about something else but all my books are already packed. Thanks to my parents, I have nothing unpacked.

* To describe the military service experience is nearly impossible. The army is a giant organization and every person lives his own experience in a fragment of the army…
* Turkish soccer games can be watched in the barracks. That’s one universal right:)
* In many barracks The Valley of the Wolves serials could also be watched. Commanders allowed servicemen to watch it even after the sleeping time…
* The quality of food changes in every station. As far as I understand, there are no standards. Some stations order from private food companies, and some do it themselves.

At Tuzla

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Breaking news:

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Erkan will be in the gendarmerie force, stationed in Kastamonu for 5.5 months. Kastamonu is a western Black Sea town, 7 hours away from Istanbul.. That’s what I am going to do: This is from Kastamonu gendarmarie station…

last days as a civilian..

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I am doing my best to finish up my to do list before my civilian life ends on Sunday.  One of the final tasks is to finish up writing an essay on Internet and Youth in Turkey. I am doing my best… Prison Break  As a reward to a day of hard work, I doze … Read more

I have resigned today

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There cannot be a leave without salary. The military service has its own insurance regime. So I have to resign from my work. It is mostly symbolic but still upsetting.   İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Dekanlığı’na, Askerlik görevime başlayacağım için Halkla İlişkiler Bölümü’ndeki öğretim görevliliği görevimden 1 Nisan 2009 tarihi itibarıyla istifa etmek zorundayım. … Read more