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to finish my education and get back to Turkey as soon as possible, and that I applied to a competent authority about my residence in Hannover, waiting for a reply. My past was well investigated, and they determined that I was harmless. The high reputation of the Turks at the time in Germany must have been considered since the law professor mentioned before prepared a petition indicating my legal status as alright. I signed this petition. Then he stamped permission on my passport that was valid for all Germans. I thanked him and left there. - Another one of my memories was the following: During World War One, one of Enver Pasha’s guards called Ahmet settled in Berlin, and opened a restaurant in a part of his house. We used to go there when we wanted to have Turkish food. One of those days I was in Ahmet’s house again. That day there were shish kebab and rice specialty. This must have been heard around that the restaurant was full. Ahmet Efendi was glad about the situation. He was softly mumbling a song. One of the tricksy students, Sarı Burhan of Konya, told him “You had the talent of a tenor and how come we weren’t aware of this”. Despite being in Germany for 25 years, Ahmet Efendi, who did not know the meaning of tenor, got really mad and shouted Sarı Burhan “You jackass, tenor is your father”. - And this one was about my profession; the task that my organic chemistry professor commissioned to me was to get five liters of fresh blood from Berlin butchery and extract the element of hemin that provides the oxygen exchange in blood. I went to the butchery with the glass jar in my hand. On my way back, everyone was looking queerly to the jar filled with blood. Maybe they thought I was a blood sucking vampire. From the five liters of blood in question, I obtained 2,5 grams of violet colored hemin crystals. - Another one of my memories is related to my being deprived of money abroad. When Germans occupied Bulgaria, they destroyed the long train bridge as well as all the other bridges on Turkish border. Because Sumerbank was sending its written instructions for our monthly payments via mail as a cheap way, we couldn’t receive our allowances for nearly three months after bridges were destroyed. Finally I was left with 30 pfenning as my last resort. My friend Selahattin Aktol was left with 45 pfenning. We put our money together and went to theatre with that. So, we were out of money for dinner. I found a jar of pea at home. And my friend took out the dried beef he brought from Turkey a year ago, which was forgotten until then. To slice the beef, we worked on it as if we were chiseling wood. We heated the beef with peas on a copper pan. That night we called the student inspector of Sumerbank and told him that we had not received our monthly payments for three months, and that we spent our last penny tonight. We also told him that we couldn’t visit him due to long distance. Upon this, Mr. Inspector arrived to our place and took out DM 100 for each of us from his swollen wallet. Besides, he told us “If you were frugal, you would have had money left as well”. In response, I told him “We are given a total amount corresponding to TL 90 a month, and that we could get on with that money for 2,5 months”. I told him that we –students- knew that members of embassy including him were paid wages seven times more than in Turkey. Later on, with the initiative of inspector, Sumerbank started to send our wages through cable transfer. - In my one other memory, I was at the famous skiing centre of Austria in Kitzbühl for 15 days immediately after I was entitled to receive my diploma. There, I met with a Greek student I knew from Hannover called Safranas. While we were talking about our situation in school, upon my telling him that I got my diploma and was considering a postgraduate degree, showing his girl friend, he told me “I am doing my doctorate with her”. He said that he was yet to receive his diploma. The mentioned Greek friend was the son of a wealthy family, and in German city of Hamburg they owned cigarette factories. Another Greek friend of us was Aristides. The two Greeks always used to hang around with the Turks, and they would be on our side on any subject. At the time, Aristides finished school and returned as a construction engineer to Greece, which was then under German occupation. I learned from Safranas that Aristides was executed by shooting for doing sabotage in the German air field in which he was working. I was also to learn later that the cigarette factories in Hamburg owned by Safranas’ were on the other hand damaged by the British air crafts. At that date, I was working as a chief of enterprises in Sumerbank’s Seka, what was then called Sumerbank Cellulose Industry Enterprise. My secretary brought the card of a person wishing to have a talk about business. This card belonged to my friend from Germany, Safranas. I invited him to my room, and he was approaching without knowing that it was me. It turned out that with the indemnity received from the Germans over their destroyed factory, they established a facility in Istanbul, Halic. When I asked him why they didn’t have the facility in Greece, he replied that the taxes were heavy in Greece and that there was the opportunity to benefit from the foreign investment incentive law in Turkey. After I returned from the skiing centre in Kitzbühl to Berlin, I told the student inspector that I finished school and I would like to do a doctorate. The inspector was surprised and wasn’t convinced since students who had arrived one year earlier than me, Faruk GÖKNİL and Yekta ÜLGEN, were yet to receive their diplomas. After he called the school and found out that I actually finished school, inspector started to exert pressure on these students, which put me in a very tough situation against them. In these times, an inspector of Sumerbank, called Tesa, invited students studying in Berlin to the luxurious hotels in the Embassy’s district. During this invitation, Technical and Executive Managers Bülent BÜKTAŞ and Cabir SELLEK were also present. Invitation was held by the two officials who were in Berlin on a duty. They were staying in the same hotel. Student inspector who happened to be very stingy wasn’t the kind of person to cover such expenses. It is impossible to forget such a feast after being accustomed to purchase food only by means of daily rations for quite some time. In this meeting, the two Sumerbank officials told us that two factories were about to be established in Turkey – one sulphuric acid in Karabuk, the other chlor-alkali in İzmit – and that they wanted two chemical engineers to be chosen to serve in these factories. The student inspector chose me and my friend Adnan Şener who had finished Dresden Technical University. I asked the inspector for 15 days permission before the factory in which we were going to get specialized would be determined. My request was granted, and so I came back to Turkey. There, I got engaged with my uncle’s daughter Makbule. I thought about taking Makbule to Germany with me after fulfilling the engagement procedures. But my uncle told me “my son is in London, you are in Germany, living in two enemy countries. I consider it unappropriate to add a third to our sorrow.” Thus, I returned to Berlin alone. After conducting an investigation in SIEMENS HALSKE Company’s construction office for a month, the company provided me the opportunity to practise in a Chlor-Alkali factory, in a small town called Sabkowic at the north of the city of Katowice in Poland – which was then under German occupation. I was staying in a hotel in Katowice, and commuting everyday to the town, where the factory was established, by train. They assigned a German manager called Beck to the factory and the Polish factory owner was working as an operating manager. There I’ve done my internship for a month and then returned to Berlin and started to work again in Siemens Halske’s construction job. According to the agreement signed between Siemens Halske and Sumerbank, the company will assign two specialists to the Chlorine Alkaline factory which will be set up in İzmit, or send there two Turkish engineers to be raised as specialists and that way, they will be monitoring the factory’s installation, set the factory going and train personnel. The company chose the second alternative probably because of the ongoing war and decided to train two Turkish engineers as specialists and that way, I became one of these two selected people. After being trained in the technical office and accumulating theoretical knowledge on literature and technology in order to increase my practical knowledge, I had the chance to work in Elektro Chemischewerke Goldsehmid Ag which was in Rosengarten village around Harley and near to the well-known Loina Factory with the help of the industrial chemistry faculty which I finished. They provided me the opportunity to stay in head technician’s house as a lodger. My every move was under control because I have to use a time card when I enter and exit the factory and because I was staying at technician’s house. After six months, they must have been convinced that I was there just for learning, they assigned me to the post of operating manager. Meanwhile, I had the opportunity to meet Professor Lotar Mayer from Harley city’s university and work with him to have my doctor’s degree. I was working at the factory until midday. I choose as my dissertation subject the electric current between several products in suzur environment and I was working in a laboratory which was reserved for me. Meanwhile, Sumerbank sent Müfit ERENLİ who had graduated from Dresten Engineer School and another person who was also supported by Sumberbank for his studies, to accompany me in my work. Müfit Erenli and I decided to stay together in technician’s house until he’s found a permanent place to stay. He was very interested to play violin and was studying to play difficult songs. I was not comfortable in the house. Then we found him a guesthouse in Harley. Afterwards he decided to attend a PHD program in Harley University. We had enough money because Sumerbank was paying us %75 more money than an average student stipend. There was no place to spend the money we have because of the war conditions. It was also impossible to save money and then bring it back to Turkey because of the German regulations at this time. For that reason I wrote a letter to Sumerbank demanding not to send me money and asked them to put it in a bank account in Turkey in order to collect it when I return. We were highly regarded at this time in Germany because we were Turkish and as we have plenty of money we had good days and we made good friends. After a short time working for my doctor’s degree, I moved from the factory technician’s house to a house near university and lived there until my return to Turkey. My laboratory studies for my dissertation were finished. As I prepared my dissertation to introduce it to my professor, my friend Müfit ERENLI, whose father had contacts with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, learned that there was a possibility that allied powers can land their troops to Balkans and therefore we might have lost our chance to return to Turkey. For that reason, we decided to return to Turkey immediately. That is why; I lost my chance to have my doctor’s degree. I returned to Berlin and settled in Hotel Stephan to prepare for my journey. Sumerbank’s inspector Necip D. Tesal came to visit me in the hotel with his wife and he congratulated me for my successful studies, than we said goodbye. Two days after, on October 27, 1943, I moved to Turkey by train . Thanks to God, we had left Berlin before it was raided by heavy air assaults and heavily destructed. I want to tell two of my memories about Germany before I finish telling about that part of my life. One of them is about my encounter with my cousin Ali Ulubay who studied in London. He called me and searched me in Berlin when I was in Austria’s ski center Kitzbühl where I went after I finished school in Berlin. At that time he was returning to Turkey after finishing his studies. He bought an airline ticket for himself on the route Londra-Lisbon-Stuttgart-Berlin-Istanbul. I learned that Ali ULUBAY came to Berlin by plane but after that, he did not have chance to continue by plane, thus he had to take the train to continue his journey. As he was not able to find me in Berlin, he visited the student inspector to ask him for help. The inspector was also working in embassy’s office of the cultural attaché and hence, he introduced Ali ULUBAY to embassy’s second secretary. The inspector left money amounted to the Berlin-Istanbul plane ticket to the before mentioned secretary who promised to send the money to Turkey. Ali Ulubay had to change his German currency, which he needed for his journey, with British gold. According to his statement, he only understood when he returned to Turkey that the student inspector misused his money. They gave him coupons to meet his meal expenses for one week while returning to Turkey. When I came to Turkey, I had to remember again that Germans were a nation which has foresight and good at organization even in a period in which they were losing the war. I only had a suitcase with me because I had put all my books in a wooden box and gave it to a transportation company in Harley. I had only my diploma, passport and pajamas in my suitcase. Because of the explosion in Turkey’s train bridge in Uzunköprü, we came to Sivilingrad by train and than we had to take a bus to go to Turkey. There, we took the train again and as we were waiting departure, we’ve learned that there was a procedure for customs. We were told that every passenger should go to the customs house. I grabbed my suitcase and I stood in the line. I noticed that some customs officers were reading some names which were privileged to go to the other side without having any customs procedures. I was mixed up because I was used to a life of discipline and the lack of favors in Nazi’s Germany. To illustrate it, I want to give some examples; -One day, while I was in Harley, I was in a telephone box on the street to make some calls. As I returned home I noticed that my wallet was missing. I went to the nearest police station to declare my situation and based on the description of my wallet, they found it and gave it back to me. -A second incident is that the mayor of Braunschweig was executed by shooting as punishment because he had butchered a pig without any permission. -As I recall, it was Friday, October 28. I came to Istanbul’s Sirkeci station by train. I had no Turkish currency but only ten Registermars with me. This currency had been used in Germany and in countries under occupation. As I was thinking what to do in the station, I heard hotel workers’ calls to attract customers. I addressed one of them and ask about their conditions. They were involved in a hotel called Nowatni in Tepebaşı. I told them that I had no money. As the next day was Saturday and the national holiday, the 29th of October, I told them if they gave me the opportunity to stay in their hotel until Monday, I would be coming with them. They’ve accepted and drove me to the hotel by taxi.
II-MY BUSINESS LIFE -When I came to Turkey I was surprised that even though Turkey did not join the war, everything, especially food was rationed. I was able to eat at Hotel Nowatni. I also took money from hotel administration, which was enough to meet my expenses until Monday. I had no bread tickets. They were demanding for tickets in the hotel for breakfasts and dinners. I learned that they distribute tickets in Beyoğlu Administrative District in Tepebaşı. It was holiday, so I could not find any responsible person there and thus I had to eat my meal without any bread for three days. As I was leaving Germany’s Austria border they gave me food tickets for one week, so I was convinced that there was lack of organization in Turkey. One night in Nowatni’s dinner lounge, Safiye Ayla was singing “Yar saçların lüle lüle” on stage. It is impossible for me to forget that one army officer put his gun on the table and started to control the stage and gave orders saying “Safiye sing that song for me”. I spent my time in the hotel until Monday and Monday morning I went to Sumerbank branch in Bankalar Street. I showed the document that I got from the student inspector and collected my accumulated monthly stipends. They gave me 900 TL. This amount was like a fortune at that time. I was indebted to Sumerbank with 11.000 TL with interest in allowance to my studentship from the end of 1937 to October 1943 in Germany. I left the hotel on the same day and traveled to Ankara. I settled in Gul Palas Hotel which was the most luxurious hotel in Ankara at that time. The cost of the suite for one night including breakfast was 10 TL. On the following day, I went to Sumerbank. Although I had a degree, since I was not conscripted for military service they assigned me as engineer trainee to Cellulose Industrial Firm with a monthly wage of 100 TL. After staying in Ankara for two nights, I went to Izmit by night train. I arrived at İzmit train station in the morning. The only vehicle to go the factory was phaeton because the population of Izmit at that time was 18.000. There were only four vehicles belonging to the governor, major, factory manager and ship-owner family. After the station, the road from the stone bridge on the railway to the factory was a dirt road. There were wooden barracks in the spot of the Sümer School. While passing by these barracks I saw that white foamy waters were running down the road and a family who were living in these barracks were doing their laundry in front of the house. The road between the station and factory was covered by thick horse muck. When I saw these, I was suspicious if there was any municipality service out there. In the factory’s dwellings, which were on the coastline, a room in the guest house was reserved for me. On the same day, I went to the chlorine factory, which was under construction and 1, 5 kilometers away from the paper factory. What I saw there was interesting. I met with the installation chief who was a relative of one of powerful statesmen and I also met Celal BECER who was appointed there when he was a painter in a textile factory. I was the engineer trainee and he was my supervisor. A bit later I learned that he was the son in law of one of the ex-governors of İzmit, Governor Eşref. In the chlorine factory where I started to work as a young person and specialized in his subject, this situation was not discouraging for me. It motivated me to work more. I was not conscripted yet. As I was told that my military service was postponed until the assemblage of the factory and until I devolve work on personnel that I would train, I decided to get married and went to Beyşehir. We got married on December 23, 1943 with my uncle’s daughter with whom I had been engaged to. The same day, we went to İzmir by train with my wife. After staying in factory’s guest house for a few days, a third type dwelling was allocated to me. In the period we’ve stayed there I remember two interesting occurrences. - First, our electrician Celal Bey was sent to Switzerland for engineering education together with five other people. His wife was a teacher, for that reason when her mother was out; my wife was taking care of their kids. One day, while little Ayşe was eating the snails in the garden, saying “nice food”, my wife brought her back home. -Another occurrence was that my engineer friend and our neighbor Faruk GÖKNİL invited his friends to their house to celebrate his birthday. I learned that I also was invited when I returned home around 10 pm from the factory which was under construction They insisted that I should drink because all the invitees were half tipsy so I had to catch them up. I wasn’t used to drinking. After they have fallen asleep, I returned home and went to bed. After a while, I woke up with sounds of cannonball. In Germany, as we were informed before half an hour about air assaults, we were going to the shelter after getting our supplies. Because of the sudden cannonball noise, I was afraid and panicked. We have founded out that one of the B 52 type American planes which was launching air attacks to Romania’s Polesti region was hit and wanted to land İzmit’s Köseköy Military Airport. Because it did not inform beforehand our military authorities and it came close to İzmit, our antiaircraft defenses fired the plane. Because of the pressure of the allied forces, Turkey had to declare war against Germany. Two assemblers, one of them Swiss and the other one German, had fled from İstanbul at night, getting all the documents and pictures. Because of the situation, Sümerbank General Management gave the order to Celal BECER to stop the assemblage without asking me. Firm manager Adnan BERKAY called me, the assemblage chief and technical manager to his office. After some discussion, I argued that we could finish the assemblage without Germans and set the factory going. They asked me to sign a contract letter. I said that I could sign the letter when they prepared it. The next day, I signed the letter which could have put me even in jail. The General Management was given information about the situation. Despite the conditions of the letter, I took that courage, because I had studied in a factory which was 20 times bigger than the facility we would be building. İzmit Chlorine Alkaline Factory was consisting of 32 pieces of blitter system with a diaphragmatic electrolist bath working with 6.000 amperes. Whereas, the Chlorine Alkaline Factory in which I was working in Ammen Dore, Germany contained 400 of them working with 12.000 amperes. As the assemblage of the factory was going on, I remember that İsmet İnönü, who was the President of the Republic at that time, visited the factory. Afterwards, a photograph taken during his visit caused a problem in 1955. That, I will explain later. Mr. Inönü’s curiosity was due to three facts coming together; Swiss firm Gaygi’s discovery of a medicine called DDT combating vermin, one of the main components of this medicine being chlorine, and that upon the rise of typhus among the Allied soldiers landed on Napoli the use and success of this medicine in combating pediculosis at soldiers and dormitories. For this purpose, one of President’s lieutenants was nominated to consistently maintain the incentives and controls in order to promptly get the factory working to produce chlorine gas and DDT. I remember staying in the factory for days, on one hand to fulfill the commitments, on the other hand to educate science staff in doing jobs like production of chlorine and containment of it in liquid form in tanks, or containment of hydrogen gas obtained during production in the gasholders. Finally, I was proud as a person who fulfilled his pledge. Appreciation of Administration Assembly of Sümerbank Head Office regarding this topic made me very happy, and gave me even more encouragement to work for our country and our nation. While operating the chlorine factory, when for any reason there was leak of gas, this was felt even when the ratio was one in two millions. I will briefly mention some of the events that had taken place in this factory. - One day there was a small leakage, so, I and Fehmi Asılbenli working in the repair workshop of the factory, went together with our masks to the area and repaired the place of leakage. Meanwhile, we learned that many workers were running to the field of lemur on the side of mountains with their masks on. Their reason for run away turned out not to be the fear of getting poisoned of chlorine, but a rumor that said those who inhale this gas wouldn’t have descendents. A short while after this incidence at the night of 16/17 in March of 1945 – which is when I hadn’t been at home for 48 hours and sleeping in factory – I heard that I had a son. This incidence proved that despite me being exposed the most to chlorine, I could have descendents, and so the rumor lost its power. - Another incident was about the reaction of Technical Acting Manager Assistant Naci TAMER against my wish to apply a matter I saw in Germany. In Germany, inside the drawer of the factory’s foreman, there used to be a bottle of liquor. Whenever a worker or a master inhaled small amount of gas, he would offer them a glass of liquor. That’s because the contact of chlorine gas with alcohol would create a chloral combination which would prevent the irritation of inner throat. Taking my point wrongly, Naci TAMER rejected my suggestion with insult, asking if I was going to ask for a woman next. Just when I started to get the Chlorine Alkali factory operating without any foreign specialist, we were requested to produce DDT by the order given from the Presidency Palace. I had no information regarding its production other then the fact that DDT’s chemical composition was Dichlore Diphenil tetra chlore ethane. As a result of my intensive research on the subject, we were able to produce DDT with 80 per cent efficiency. After this, we informed Presidency through Sümerbank, upon which a committee was established including Dr. Iskender BATU from Ministry of Defence, Mr. Izzet from Sümerbank, and me. We started the work in İzmit, and reached a few kilograms of production a day. Modern, large scale reactors were needed. The output we produced was costly. The aspiration to carry on with the work in Istanbul at the Defterdar Woolen Factory owned by Sümerbank became overwhelming upon wishes of my colleagues, who recently arrived from Ankara and had more age and higher rank then me. We established a pilot DDT workshop in the Defterdar Factory after providing some equipment from an alkaloid workshop, which at the time wasn’t in use and I don’t remember to whom it belonged to. There we started out with 10 kg. per day. After installing my friend chemist Yekta ÜLGEN for the business to run, I returned back on top of my work in Izmit. I was supported with the newly appointed Mustafa EKE and Hakkı GÜRKAN in the Chlorine Alkali Factory. They were being raised on the subject next to me. One of the units demanding special attention when being part of the enterprise was the attainment of hydrochloric acid (HCl), which happens by combining hydrogen and chlorine gases and distilled water, which was in the shape of serpentine and was placed at the upper floor of the building. First the hydrogen was burnt, and then it was required that chlorine gas transmitted from the electrolysis unit through inside and outside ceramic pipes, and dispatched to the burnt hydrogen in equivalent proportions. One day, I was gone home for lunch, and after a while they called from the factory saying there had been an explosion in the hydrochloric acid unit. I recall going there by bike since there was no other means, and relaxing after hearing that nobody was hurt. The accident was due to the dispersion of hydrogen into the system, and its mixing with oxygen, resulting with an explosion after the first spark. It was understood that this was the result of recklessness of an engineer called Mustafa EKE, who stopped and restarted the facility with the thought of jealousy over Mr. Seyit, saying why he couldn’t work the facility if Mr. Seyit could. Because of this irresponsible behavior, the mentioned engineer was sent back to the paper factory’s laboratory as an analysis chemist. From the remaining intact Kovarz Serpentines, we managed to achieve a repair of 1/3 capacity. - Just when I was thinking that I could relax after all unites of the facility would start running routinely and there would be relatively enough number of educated staff, I received an order dispatching me for a provision battalion for reserve officers. At night I took off from Istanbul to Izmir on the deck of Kadeş Ferry, with documents from the recruitment office. I would like to tell a little about my sudden recruitment after a long time of postponement, since I found the reason interesting. - I turns out that a relative of an engineer that I raised next to me was the president of Izmit Recruitment Office. Since this engineer had an eye on my position, he got me dispatched by spying on me to the president. I learned this fact after I got back from the military from a local government official from Izmit (Nuri BALTACI), who was working at the personnel service at that time . Sudden departure like this put our family affairs in a difficult position. I had to send my wife and six months old son Hasan to my father’s house in Konya. Since it was impossible to save up money from a salary of 120 TL, the financial troubles we went through was really hard to forget. I met with Şahabettin BİLGİSU, on the deck of the Kadeş Steamship who was the son of the owner of Kocaeli Drugstore. Late in the evening, we went down to the hatch to warm up a little bit. There we ran into a very interesting situation. Some of the passengers were seated in groups, gambling by throwing dices. They placed one man by the stairs to alert them in case any steward or any ship official shows up. After a while, because it was inconvinient to be there, we climbed up back to deck. We rented two chaise lounges by paying fifty kuruş (penny) an we covered ourselves using our coats in a quiet corner and slept. In the morning, we arrived at Izmir and we applied to the military headquarters beneath the clock tower. I was dispatched to 193th Infantry Regiment in Gaziemir. At the infantry regiment exercise field, I went to the spot where sergeant major sat on a chair with a wooden table, and I registered myself. They gave me a bed and a pillow case with a quilt and a blanket. They showed me one of the tents that spread all around the field. We were ordered to fill hay in to the empty bed and pillow cases. When I went there, I noticed that soft hay straws were collected by early comers already and there were only hard and coarse ones left. When I returned to the sergeant major to tell about is, I was scolded with a military tone. They didn’t even let us buy a bale of hay from a nearby village Seydi for our use. Desperately I had to select straws of hay from the pit. At that night I woke up with a deep pain that I can never forget the hard hay straw was stuck in my flank. At the weekends, I was travelling from infantry regiment that was nearby Cumaovası Airport to Izmir via train from Seydi village. I was putting on my civilian dresses in a hotel room taking off the military uniform. As nothing was heard from the mother of one of our close friends in Konya for a long time, I was asked to investigate. The district was Güzelyalı, and all the streets were numbered. Since I couldn’t find the address I was looking for, I asked for help at a police station. I don’t know if it was my short cut hair or my impression of a guilty man over them, instead of telling me about the address I need, they had asked me who I was, my parents’ names and addresses. I was the squad corporal in the preparation detachment for two months. I shall mention some of the interesting events that I experienced during that two months. - We had to pay 60 TL for the necessary equipment for exercises such as rifle straps, cartrige-belts, flask straps which should have been completely free of charge. - We had olives and eggs at the breakfast every day but we couldn’t eat because both of them were rotten. - The reason of criticism from our exercise officer, for all of our behaviors one day, was the kind of attitude that was inconvinient for an honourable Turkish Officer. The mentioned person had been offered drinks at a bar twice a week. I had no idea about it. When I asked the reason for the unusual behavior of the exercise officer, I found out that it was our squads turn. As I had no capability and money about the issue, the exercise officer had punished our squad with “lay down” commands on thorny plants accompanied by marches. On the complaint of another friend who was subjected to the same behavior and whose father was a upper level military officer, the exercise officer named Seracettin, was dispatched to Hakkari. It was one or two days for my two months of military detachment trainning to come to an end. Our regiment commander officer was told that an inspection was going to take place. Our battalion was lined up at the exercise field, waiting for the general. The clothing of 5 or 6 people that I never saw until that day, was attracting attention. The commander ordered them to line up in the last row. Because these people were never appeared for exercises, their clothes were brand new. The colour of our clothes had paled out. We were going to be dispatched to reserve officer school after the ceremony for 29 October 1945, the Republic Day. Because I never used any leave during the trainning, my request was accepted and after handing over the equipment under my responsibility to our commander who was a second lieutenant, I left and went to Konya, and after one week I went to reserve officer school in Ankara. Because I was late, they wanted to treat |