Turkish Village
Copyright 1965, 1994 Paul Stirling. All rights reserved.
Paul Stirling
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE VILLAGE AND THE WORLD
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Page 270
corruptible - a remarkable fact, since accusations of this kind are easily and frequently made. The villagers showed no personal resentment.
Every man was called up at the official age of eighteen for service in the army or the gendarmerie. The responsibility for seeing that those called reported for duty rested on the headman. Some people sought to evade conscription by not registering the birth of sons, many to postpone it by registering it late. Some young men evaded the summons by going away, for shorter or longer periods, to take casual labour in the towns. Official postponement was granted in certain circumstances. But on the whole everyone did his military service and most young men looked forward to it. Those who had served remembered it with pride as an exciting and interesting period of their lives. Military attitudes were common. The villagers gave the sergeants and officers of the gendarmerie military respect; they called villagers who had become sergeants or corporals by these titles for the rest of their lives; they played soldiers at wedding festivities; they frequently gloried in Turkey's military record, and in their national prowess in Korea. Ataturk's official policy of firmly separating the military and the political functions had had little effect on the village view of government. Officials visiting the villages were given quasi-military respect, and they discussed with anxiety the dangers of exchanging the soldier Ismet Inönü, hero of the War of Independence, for the banker Celal Bayar, in 1950, as Head of State and ex-officio Supreme Commander of all national armed forces.
Undoubtedly military service was a major cause of the village's unquestioned identification with the national state, and a source, through indoctrination, of glory in Turkey's achievements. Almost all had an opportunity to see more of Turkey, and a few learned literacy and technical skills. None of this, in 1950 to 1952, made any great impact on village life.1
The Law
Villagers frequently talk about law, kanun, usually in the course of explaining institutions or behaviour, or in arguments about rights. These references imply a finality; the law is the
- Robinson and Lerner (1960) pp. 34-36 take a more positive vie.
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