Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Turkey’s First Conscientious Objector Tayfun Gönül Passes Away

Ekin Karaka writes for Bianet:

"Tayfun was an extremely interesting character. He was obsessed about military service during the period between 1988 and 1989. Our horizons broadened thanks to him, and together we launched the 'No to Mandatory Military Service' campaign," said journalist Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Gönül's co-worker in Sokak Magazine during the 1980s.

"As soon as we launched the campaign, [officials] filed a suit against us on the charge of 'alienating people from military service.' We kept shuttling back and forth to the Sultanahmet courthouse with him during that entire period... In fact, Metin Münir, who was at the helm of Güneş newspaper, also stood trial with us, as he had put our campaign on the paper's headline," Eryılmaz said.

"Tayfun had an uncompromising [attitude,] but he showed this not through a bellicose but an extremely gentle style. He was the person who planted the seeds of awareness against militarism in Turkey," he added.

Gönül had participated in the International Conscientious Objectors' Day on May 15 when he briefly came out of hospital and criticized the language of hatred that permates the media in his speech.

Both Turkish and Kurdish media outlets employ such religious terminology as "martyrdom," Gönül had said.

"All sections [of society] should abandon the rhetoric of "the flag" and "marytrdom" without constraining themselves to a particular political-ideological engagement. I do not know how we are going to overtake the present language of nationalism, however," he had said in his speech.

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