TURKEY MOURNS LAST INDEPENDENCE FIGHTER

TVNZ
310021
Nov 15 2008
New Zealand

Turkey laid to rest the last veteran of the 1919-1923 war which secured
its independence in a solemn, patriotic ceremony where dignitaries
and emotional onlookers pledged never to forget.

Modern Turkey is once again in the grip of rapid social change as it
undergoes democratic reforms aimed at European Union membership and
debates its secularism, but Mustafa Sekip Birgol’s death this week
united Turks in gratitude for their freedom.

Thousands of soldiers, veterans and Turkish citizens pinned Birgol’s
image to their chests and followed the funeral procession of the
105-year-old former colonel through the streets of Istanbul to sombre
applause.

"We feel both proud and sad," said his daughter Ipek Artunc, thanking
those who had come to pay their respects during a commemoration with
full military honours.

"Today we live in freedom and we must show our gratitude to those
who fought for that privilege," said 50-year-old Ayse Ozutop, who
had travelled to Istanbul’s Asian shore especially to witness the
procession following Birgol’s coffin.

Birgol was born in 1903 into a fading Ottoman Empire struggling to
embrace modernity and manage territories stretching from the Balkans
to the Arabian Peninsula.

Defeated in World War One after siding with Germany, the former empire
faced foreign occupation and annexation until Turkey’s founder Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk marshalled an independence campaign, in which Birgol
fought against the Greeks as a lieutenant.

"We have lost our last victorious hero, but Turks will never
forget. Our soldiers are very important to us," said 63-year-old
retired nurse Zuhal Arnik, speaking in a street lined with flag-waving
mourners.

As a rising and more religious-minded middle class moves into positions
of power and questions Turkey’s traditional autocratism, the old guard
of generals, judges and bureaucrats is losing its grip on society.

Turkey’s metamorphosis involves examining the origins of the state
and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of non-ethnic Turks which
took place in the process.

This week Turkey’s defence minister said he was misunderstood when
he backed the deportation of Greeks and Armenians as an important
step in creating modern Turkey.

Turkey’s political parties presented a united front in honouring
Birgol at the Turkish parliament in Ankara.