Hatice Demir, daughter of the late Turkish war veteran, Adil Sahin recently revealed to the ABC that her father’s survival during the Gallipoli campaign was thanks to a Greek soldier.
Following the end of the campaign, Mr Sahin went on to serve in Saudi Arabia where he was captured by English soldiers.
“One of the soldiers, he was from this village [Eceabat], he was Greek and he remembered them, and helped three of them to escape,” Mrs Demir recalls from her father’s stories.
One of the three last surviving war veterans, Mr Sahin appeared in Chris Masters and Harvey Broadbent’s iconic Four Corners documentary The Fatal Shore.
At 95, Mrs Demir still speaks of her father fondly, recalling how he was revered both by the family and the Eceabat community.
“If someone asked him, he always was happy to talk about the war but he never did at home,” Mrs Demir recalls.
In his documentary appearance, Mr Sahin explains the war in simple terms, clarifying that as a soldier, he did not feel any hatred towards his opponents.
“Their duty was to come invade, ours was to defend,” said Mr Sahin.
“So they came and we fought, then they went. No, I never hated them. Never.”
Source: ABC
