Turkey Ankara (6)

>> Okay. My name is Ali Jengis Tuko. I was born in 1927, and I was, in other words, 90 years old. I didn't know anything about Korea. Almost everybody didn't know anything because of the China occupy the Korea. Of course, we didn't know anything. After the wars, after the Korean battle, government asked volunteers to be sent to Korea. I was one of those volunteers. At that time, I was 26 years and first lieutenant. I was a young [INAUDIBLE]. Let me tell you something. When I went to Korea, I thought that everything is very bad, destroyed country. It was very bad ourselves. We wanted to help all the time. Because of that [INAUDIBLE] I went there myself twice. Everybody talk about our battles. As you know, the Turkish Army fought 14 battles, and especially three of them were very important. Kunuri then ... >> Vegas. >> Vegas later though. >> Kumyangjang. >> Kumyangjang, a battle very close to February. It was really very good victory. As you know, after the battles, more than 1,000 Chinese were killed, 1,734, if I am not mistaken. So we tried to do our best, but I am going to say now. It's very important. Nowadays, especially Americans, say it's a forgotten war for Korea. I say that never forget Korean War, so we will try to do our best not to be forgotten. Maybe you're going to help too. Forces, when we came together, in 2013, when we went to Korea to attend a meeting for the federation with my president together, so everybody is discussing, "What are we going to do?" As you know, the number of the Korean disappearing. Some associations calculated. They said, "We don't have enough numbers." Then we put it into words, what's going to do. Only president of the England's, British, said, "No, I will not come again here," and 21, they said, "yes." Then next year, that was, let me think, 2014. I went again with my friends. We were together. So we discussed it. Everybody said different alternatives of what should be done. Some said it should be delivered to our descendants. Some others said, "You must join another association." As you know, Turkey, I think, at the beginning did very best, so we didn't want only Korean War Veterans Association. We called it only Veterans Association, so we are very comfortable. Now especially some Korean people also wanted to join a veteran's association in that city. [INAUDIBLE]. >> Spacious. >> An old man, you see, Korean was giving a job to discuss this. He said, "We must join another associations." [INAUDIBLE]. The job was given to two veterans from New Zealand. They prepared a drop and sent it, dropped it here, but until now, nobody called us to do anything, but we don't know what we are going to do. We are waiting news from Korea. We expect that we go there and continue with the same associations, but we don't know it yet. >> Let's go back to your experience in the war. >> [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. >> Okay. Let me tell you something. It was terrible. I don't want to talk about it because everybody talk about it. It was not easy. >> But what did you ... >> Let me tell you something. Turkey tried to do its best. We did everything, everything. Also, we had the Koreans as well, you see, a shared effort with the Koreans. We shared. We took care of the orphans. We tried our best. One more thing, after coming back from Korea, I felt sympathy and all the Korean people when I was 26, but when they had passed, some are getting old, I always felt affection and sympathy for Korean. To me, all the Korean children are my grandchildren. You are my granddaughters [INAUDIBLE]. I love Korea. I love Korean people. Whatever they are, it's not important. I love all of them. That's why, you see, I wanted to talk about better things, but I will that we love Korea. Another thing, you see, of course, when I went to Korea, I was surprised. It was not Korea. It was something different. It was born from its ashes, like a phoenix, as you know. Some people say she lived 500 years. Some people say she lived 1,000 years, but after he died he born from her ashes again. So Korea did the same thing. I love Korea. What could I say? I love all of you. >> And we love Turkey too. Koreans love Turkey. >> That's why, you see, I didn't say bad things, but all the Turkish soldiers were heroes, many heroes around. >> Everyone, my American friends, every country, every soldier says Turkish soldiers were ... >> Everybody says so. Not only Turkish people do, everybody. >> ... very brave. Thank you so much, my captain.