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I am both sad and angry as I write this. It comes on the tail of the ‘failed’ military coup that took place Friday evening.

I don’t have much regard for politics and can’t say that I have enough knowledge about the parties and leaders to make any kind of informed decision about who should be in power, or not. I have my gut feelings about such matters and those, I’ll keep to myself, but on this matter I must speak out because it’s churning my insides.

What has absolutely disgusted me is the behaviour of civilian supporters against the military. I’ve seen enough photos of beaten and bloody young boys in camouflage to last me a lifetime – boys who were simply following orders have been publicly striped, whipped with belts, kicked, punched and humiliated on the streets and on the news for everyone to see. . .  including their mothers.

And the worst part? Let me sum it up for you in one famous quote:

‘There but for the grace of god go I’

Turkey is a country with conscription. Every man of Turkish nationality must do his army service, which means that a civilian man beating a soldier, has already walked that mile in his boots . . . or will at some point in the future.

Do you think a soldier in the Turkish army dare to disobey an order? Do you think those civilians would have when they were soldiers?  Of course not and yet now the boot is on the other foot, they have forgotten this simple fact? Absolutely despicable human beings.

I hope, on the day their sons leave for army service, these ignorant men remember their part in this. And I hope they spend the years living in fear of seeing the beaten bloody face of their son on the news.

In Politics, as in chess, pawns are nothing more than bodies to be sacrificed….