Female soldier tells mourning mother 'rich people don't become soldiers, don't die'

A non-commissioned female officer, accompanying the mother of a killed soldier during his funeral, took the attention of the media when she said that rich people would not become soldiers nor be martyred, while trying to soothe the mother?s pain.

In an attempt to comfort Cennet Özata, the mourning mother of 23-year-old Mustafa Kemal Özata, who succumbed to his injuries days after being wounded in clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK), the female officer said the rich would not die in clashes as they would not become soldiers at the fallen soldier?s funeral, held in Turkey?s central province of Konya on Aug. 29. 

?Aunty, don?t I know? Would the rich become soldiers? No. The rich would neither become a soldier nor a martyr,? said the female soldier, as Cennet Özata was explaining her hard economic situation while raising all seven of her children. 

Specialized Sgt. Özata, who was injured in clashes in the southeastern province of Hakkari?s Yüksekova district on Aug. 14, succumbed to his injuries on Aug. 28, at the GATA military hospital in Ankara where he was being treated. 

His mother said his son had to work in bazaars after graduating from high school and added that her husband was a driver. 

The female soldier?s words came a week after the brother, also an officer, of a killed soldier had lashed out the country?s main political figures, during his younger brother?s funeral ceremony. 

Lt. Col. Mehmet Alkan, the elder brother of slain army captain Ali Alkan, who was killed after PKK militants attacked a military outpost in the southeastern ??rnak province?s Beytü??ebap district late Aug. 21, directly targeted politicians during the funeral in the southern province of Osmaniye on Aug. 23, where...