Veysel Turan

Veysel Turan (1901-2007) was one of the last Turkish veterans of the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923).

Taking his horse cart with from his village in Konya Province, he voluntarily joined Kuvayi Milliye under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal to fight against the Allies partitioning the Ottoman Empire after it was defeated in World War I. Called "Turkish: Sıhhiyeci Onbaşı Veysel", he served as a combat medic in the rank of a corporal in the attack battalion of the 1st Division at the battles Dumlupınar, Sakarya, 2nd İnönü and the Great Offensive. His first duty in the battlefield was to collect the corpses of fallen soldiers with his cart.

He died on 25 March 2007 in Konya, where he was hospitalized in Meram State Hospital three days before due to kidney and hearth failure. He had 7 children and 25 grandchildren. Bedridden for a long time and speech disabled for two years, he had been living together with his daughter Semiha Turan. After his death, only two veterans of the War of Independence, Yakup Satar and Mustafa Şekip Birgöl remained alive in Turkey.^[1]

His memories from the War of Independence and his daily life along with that of the two other veterans, Ömer Küyük and Yakup Satar, are depicted in the documentary film Son Buluşma (2007) (English: The Last Meeting) by Nesli Çölgeçen.^[2]

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