Lieutenants launch YouTube channel, answer frequently asked questions!

Five lieutenants who chanted the slogan "We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal" and recited the "officer's oath" during the Military Academy graduation ceremony on August 30, 2024, were dismissed from the Turkish Armed Forces.

In the incident that caused repercussions and debate in Turkey, the lieutenants clarified many questions.

Serhat Gündar, one of the lieutenants broadcasting on YouTube, hosted another dismissed lieutenant, Deniz Demirtaş. The lieutenants answered questions from citizens.

'DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS?'

Responding to the question, "How did you feel after being dismissed? Do you have any regrets?", Serhat Gündar said, "Friends, I think this question is a bit absurd. I mean, you dedicate the best 17-22 age range of your life to a uniform and a rank for 5 years, and just 4 months after putting on the uniform and rank you dreamed of, they are unfairly taken away from you. I ask you, how would you feel?"

Gündar continued his answer to the question as follows:

As for whether we have any regrets, there is a misunderstanding. We did not do anything to regret or not regret. We only did what was necessary and what should have been done. We performed the graduation celebration by crossing swords, which every class does traditionally after the graduation ceremony ends, just like the classes before us, normally and routinely. So, why should we regret celebrating our graduation and experiencing the joy of our graduation? Those who attribute different meanings to this, those who attribute meanings containing different political messages to this, are unfortunately the people who dismissed us and unfairly pushed us out of the army.

'WE DID NOT DO ANYTHING TO REGRET'

Answering the same question, Lieutenant Deniz Demirtaş said, "Of course, we did not do anything to regret. I mean, commemorating Atatürk, the eternal commander-in-chief and the greatest cadet, is the most important thing for a cadet. If you follow the news, this happened after the ceremony. I mean, even if we did something like this during the ceremony, if we engaged in indiscipline that would disrupt the flow of the ceremony, that would be one thing; furthermore, this is not an act of indiscipline, the ceremony was over and I was no longer a student at the military academy. My title there was a lieutenant. I was not personnel attached to the military academy. Therefore, I do not think I committed an act of indiscipline, both legally and conscientiously."

Deniz Demirtaş described the moments he learned he was dismissed as follows:

When I learned that I had been dismissed, I could not react in any way. I could not attend the branch school. I had to serve in Mamak for three months. It was like a life of exile for me. I was away from all my classmates. While my classmates were receiving training at their own branch schools, I was there with İzzet. We looked out for each other. We did not receive the news through an official notification. We learned the news from the television when we went to the dormitory. We did not know how to react. Messages were coming to our phones. Messages like, 'brother, get well soon,' 'classmate, get well soon'... We had no idea about anything. We should have been the ones to be informed, but we learned from them. Then when we turned on the television, we saw that we had been dismissed.