An overwhelming majority of Turkish society thinks that its children are ‘fighting for the homeland’ in Kurdistan, just like Americans thought during the Vietnam War. It does not see that they become death machines, and continue to live alongside murderers and rapists.

Directed by Oliver Stone, ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ starring Tom Cruise was released in 1989. The movie got 8 Oscar nominations and won 2 Oscar awards, and won the best film award at the Golden Globes.

Adapted from Ron Kovic’s novel, the movie tells the story of a nationalist American soldier as he participates in the Vietnam War, kills civilians, accidentally shoots a friend, gets injured and confined to a wheelchair, and later understands that the dirty war was waged for the profit of arms dealers as he begins to participate in the anti-war movement.

The main focus of ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ was the war syndrome of hundreds of thousands of soldiers who had participated in ‘the defense of the homeland’ as opposed to the story of one particular soldier. The movie strikingly depicts how the Vietnam Syndrome lasts a lifetime and affects all segments of society, and stirred up debate when it was released.

The name of the movie became controversial because the United States Declaration of Independence was released on July 4th 1776, and the fourth of July has been celebrated as the country’s independence day. Oliver Stone’s movie showed that the ‘Day of Independence’ lost its meaning and the celebrations were used to support expansionist and militarist policies as well as transforming people into war machines.

The US lost in Vietnam because it was wrong and illegitimate, however the problems that emerged with the war endured. The syndrome continues to haunt US society even though the war ended 40 years ago. Cases of suicide, armed assault and rape peaked after the war, and it was too late when the death squads returned home and realized that they have been killing people for nothing.

The case of Turkish occupation forces in Kurdistan since the 1990s is no different; their syndrome is even worse than Vietnam syndrome. The majority of the hysteria attacks we read in newspapers today are all related to the syndrome of the war in Kurdistan. Turkish society has become used to reading news such as ‘man who served as a commando in the South East had a hysteria attack, killed his wife, 2 children, and father-in-law before committing suicide.’ These cases have become so widespread that they are not even newsworthy anymore!

The main reason for the moral collapse Turkey experiences today is the dirty war the Turkish state wages in Kurdistan. Since the war is dirty, unjust and illegitimate, its consequences in Turkish society are suicide, rape, harassment, theft and murder. Turkish society will never change these consequences as long as it continues to turn a blind eye to reality in an anti-Kurdish manner.

The US State Department recently released its Human Rights report and noted that 28 soldiers, 47 military personnel and 36 police officers committed suicide in Turkey in 2015. In total, 111 state forces committed suicide, and this information was received from official Turkish state records. We should point out that the actual numbers are higher, and some special operations officers that commit suicide are portrayed as if they died in clashes. Do you think that state forces who burn and destroy Kurdistan, torture dead bodies, target children, women and men, and make racist, sexist and immoral graffiti on civilians’ houses are healthy people?

They are not healthy, and their syndrome will get worse as long as the war continues and the crimes of this band of murderers get more serious. The recent example of this escalation in crimes can be seen in Sur and Nusaybin. It was discovered that 1000 special operations forces either resigned or asked for reassignment in order to not go to Kurdistan. How about the letter of that special operations police officer saying that ‘4 battalions were destroyed?’ Gülhane Military Medical Academy is reported to have assigned psychiatrists in order to increase the morale of the murderers stuck in Nusaybin.

An overwhelming majority of Turkish society think that its children are ‘fighting for the homeland’ in Kurdistan, just like Americans thought during the Vietnam War. It does not see that they become death machines, and continue to live alongside murderers and rapists.

These murderers and rapists, who even torture dead bodies, participate in social life, get married, have children, and seem like ordinary people in civilian life. They go shopping, spend time with their wives and children, and celebrate holidays.

What happens later?

They will either come back in a coffin wrapped with the Turkish flag from the dirty war they fight, or become a news story of three sentences beginning with ‘man who served as a special operations police officer cut his wife and children into pieces before committing suicide’

Turkish society should know that there is not a third alternative for the army of murderers and rapists.