Michael: > Almost $300,000 per soldier.
In 1953, when the US Secretary of State Dalles claimed that Turkey supplied the cheapest soldiers to NATO, for 23 cents each, Nazim wrote a poem entitled: "A soldier for 23 cents" It starts like this: "Mister Dalles, It is not appropriate to hide it from you, life is a bit expensive in our country. For example, you can buy two hundred grams of meat, lamb, for 23 cents in Ankara." Later in the poem he writes: "There is more Mister Dalles, Even before when it was not clear what words like oppression, liberty, brotherhood meant in your language, he fought against oppression, for independence and liberty, inviting all nations to the table of brotherhood, to be able say altogether in everywhere, in everything, except on the cheek of the lover." The miserable translation of the above parts are mine. It is a long poem and in these days back home it is circulating around like crazy. I see it everywhere. Best, Sabri
