Let the dreams of non-commissioned officers come into frution

31 January 2024; "What are the Problems Encountered by Personnel Employed as Non-Commissioned Officers in the Turkish Armed Forces Who Meet the Appropriate Criteria After Their Transition to Officer Status?" (https://strasam.org/analiz-ve-raporlar/sanat/turk-silahli-kuvvetlerinde-astsubay-olarak-istihdam-edilen-personelden-uygun-kriterleri-karsilayanlarin-subayliga-gecisi-sonrasinda-karsilastiklari-sorunlar-nelerdir-2865), I wrote about the historical process of ranks / formations similar to the NCO class from the establishment of the Turkish Army to the present day, In 1951, with the Law No. 5802, I presented a brief history of the Non-Commissioned Officer Class, which was created as an Assistant Officer, and some of the problems experienced today and the arrangements that can be made for the benefit of you, my esteemed readers.

In this article, I would like to present to your opinion and attention the issues affecting the purpose of the establishment of the non-commissioned officer class, the process from its establishment to the present day and the issues affecting the retirement life.

First of all, serving in the Turkish Armed Forces is not a profession, but a lifestyle that affects oneself and one's family. In this respect, I would like to express that I do not consider military service, which has a different structure from many other professions, as an ordinary profession or a way of earning money. As a natural extension of this view, a long period spent in the profession continues as a part of life after retirement. Once a soldier, he is a soldier for life. Even if he takes off his military uniform, the feeling of being a soldier lasts for a lifetime. The relationship between the soldiers is also maintained in their retirement lives without military uniforms, but in civilian clothes. In the army, personnel are raised with the concept of "we are a family". Indeed, for military personnel of all ranks serving in the Turkish Armed Forces, the Army is their second family. Sometimes it is even their only family. All they have is military service. 

On the other hand, some facts of life are also valid for soldiers. Retirement is a dream that all officers, non-commissioned officers, specialists and contracted personnel serving in the Turkish Armed Forces dream of. When the time comes, every soldier wants to take off his/her uniform with the pleasure of labouring with honour, and lead a serene retirement life.

If I ask you to define retirement, I can hear you say things like resting without working, travelling and having fun to our heart's content. But we all know that this is not the case, that life has conditions that force us all, especially for retired people, these conditions are even more severe today. 

The concept of "pensioner" is defined in TDK as "A person who has worked for a certain period of time and has been disconnected from his/her job in accordance with the law and has been granted a pension, tekaüt". The word tekaüt, on the other hand, has entered our language from Arabic and means to retire.

Some of the retirees who started to live their second life after retiring in my dear country continue their lives with their grandchildren and some with their problems.

The first thing that comes to many people's minds when it comes to retirees; People who cannot work due to old age and who no longer make any contribution to society come to mind.

However, pensioners are actually people who have reached the peak of their profession in terms of knowledge and skills.

Of course, the process of old age is inevitable with retirement. As every age has its own beauty, old age is one of the most beautiful aspects of life. Atatürk's "A nation's attitude towards its elderly citizens and pensioners is the most important criterion of that nation's ability to live. A nation that does not feel a sense of gratitude towards those who worked hard when it was very powerful in the past has no right to look to the future with confidence." This statement clearly reveals how we should behave towards retirees individually or as a society.

As expressed by our ancestor, he worked hard in the institution he worked in, put the institution he worked for above the ones he loved the most, and worked 24/7 away from his loved ones and his warm bed, regardless of snow, winter, hot and cold, mountains, slopes, and his sweat and blood, Who wouldn't want to see a smile on the faces of the hardworking non-commissioned officers who sacrificed their limbs and lives for this cause, at least after retirement, but unfortunately, the unfavourable regulations on personal rights, which were ignored intentionally or unintentionally, knowingly or unknowingly, have paved the way for retired non-commissioned officers to struggle with their problems, not with their grandchildren.

Since the establishment of the Turkish Army, the cadre that has been working between the Senior Command Staff and Privates, who are non-ranked soldiers, has achieved great successes and constitutes an important place in the system; Since 1951, with the law numbered 5802, it was established as the non-commissioned officer class as an Assistant Officer with the law numbered 5802, and since its establishment, it has achieved many successes within the Army and has been the backbone and indispensable of the Army.

As you can appreciate, every invention, invention or innovation (the Non-Commissioned Officer Class is one of the most successful inventions of the last century, which was created and accepted for the Army to be more advanced and more successful) undergoes a continuous development phase in order to be more efficient and to be able to hold on to life like an embryo in order to achieve more success. To give an example;

Airplanes, automobiles, TVs, computers, etc. We cannot finish writing, not only mechanically, but all inventions, inventions and productions that affect our lives in all areas of life such as TV series, books, clothes are born, grow and take their place in the dusty pages of history to be replaced by other inventions after completing the necessary cycle. Some of them even go out of cycle without growing.

However, in the period from the date of publication of the law in question to the present day, the practices included in the law enacted in that year and in favour of the non-commissioned officer class have never been implemented for some reason.

In this process, changes and various amendments were made for the Non-Commissioned Officer Class, but the changes made were implemented in the form of 2 forward and 1 backward, like the march of the Mehter Team, and these changes / developments in the laws could not be sufficient for the non-commissioned officers, who are the backbone of the Army, to smile.

As a result of the activities such as mass marches, rallies, etc. initiated by non-commissioned officers in 1970 and 1975 with the concepts of right, law and justice, the issues defended in the squares were always justified by the competent authorities, but the necessary arrangements were not fully made, and the small arrangements made were not sufficient and ultimately could not make the Backbone of the Army happy. When the improvements made in the TAF in the time that has passed until today and other statuses within the Army are taken into consideration, it comes to mind that the Non-Commissioned Officer class has been forgotten or that these changes have been made by partially ignoring them.

However, all the elements that make up an Army are a whole like the limbs that make up the human body. The purpose and goal of all these limbs is to maintain the body as a single body. The TAF is a whole with all its elements and the aim of these elements is to be a single body. When the proportions are disturbed in the nourishment of this body, when there is a deviation in proportion, as you can appreciate, similar to the occurrence of diseases in the human body, unrest will inevitably begin in the Turkish Armed Forces, which is exactly what has been experienced from past to present in terms of non-commissioned officers.

When the personal rights of all the elements that make up the Turkish Armed Forces are given to all military statuses in a balanced manner, taking into account rights, law and justice, no internal or external shaking that may occur can ever crack the unity and solidarity of the Army, the unity and solidarity of the Army, and the representative unity of this ossified and steeled supreme Turkish nation.

Non-Commissioned Officers, who are defined as Assistant Officers in the law, sacrifice their lives shoulder to shoulder with the Officers for the sake of the Turkish Nation, the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish Flag at all times and in all places in peace and war, on land, at sea and in the air. 

The fight against terrorism in which the Turkish Armed Forces participated both at home and abroad and the recent heinous coup attempt of 15 July 2016 could not succeed due to the struggle of officers and non-commissioned officers shoulder to shoulder at the cost of their lives and the cost of the blood shed.

Although NCOs, who are defined as Assistant Officers in the Law, perform the same/similar services/tasks as Officers in their Job Description Forms, they do not receive Duty Compensation, Position Compensation and Representation Compensation while on active duty, in other words, on duty and then on retirement. The lack of arrangements for the personal rights of non-commissioned officers in the Turkish Armed Forces causes the non-commissioned officer community to feel like stepchildren both while on duty and in their retirement lives.

This unfair situation causes dissatisfaction and negative situations in the sense of belonging, and continues to form the basis for the legitimate ways of seeking rights, law and justice experienced in the past.

As a CONCLUSION; In order to ensure the survival of the geography where our country is located, to perceive all elements of the Turkish Armed Forces as a single body, to increase morale, motivation and to strengthen the concept of family, I consider that the search for rights, law and justice to include non-commissioned officers with the motto Justice is the Foundation of Property will be a solution to all the problems that non-commissioned officers are trying to express.