The Sinking of Kocatepe

Dear friends, dear youth,

When I was a kid, we used to play with wooden swords, yelling "Either partition or death - The military to Cyprus" in our neighborhood. I couldn't have known that I was going to fight for the freedom of Cyprus with the rank of Navy lieutenant on the TCG Kocatepe back then. I believe that fighting there and continuing the struggle of life after escaping the sinking ship was entirely luck/destiny.

When the General Staff Department of Studies asked me to write my memories and send them, I gladly accepted the task of writing the events, for better or for worse, as your friend who has been in this war in person.In my writing, I did not mention the chronological history, which I assume every one knows. The document you will read consists entirely of what I remember from my memories and my diary.When my friend Suleyman Ertekin proposed me to write the memories in question, I thought about it for a bit and deeming that sharing what I have been through with you and especially with "besbinler junior" would be useful, I decided to write. I wanted my young friends to read these lines like a story, think about the Cyprus

issue, which has become very relevant again these days, and to derive the lessons they deem appropriate for themselves.

Zühtü GÜMÜŞÇAĞLAYAN

MY MEMORIES OF THE CYPRUS PEACE OPERATION:1. From my Diary, written on 4 November 1974

I tell myself, let me write what I remember from the day of 21 July 1974, but I do not want to write. I am afraid I will not be able to write everything. To the West of Cyprus, we were attacked by planes. We fought the planes for an hour, at the end, we left our ship which was just a target. The ship exploded in the evening... The war we got into was the war of our destiny; our destiny let us live!...We bombarded the land, we sank the torpedo boat, we chased Greek ships, we were sank by Turkish planes; 54 among us became martyrs. The crew of the ship was 236 people. Almost half of all dead died in the sea after leaving the ship; most of us were half dead when we were saved!?...

TCG Kocatepe is a heartbreak, an internal wound; if the Navy can find an ointment to heal that wound, nobody can beat us!.. It lacked U/S weapons, lacked personnel, lacked Varta batteries, lacked, lacked and at the end, when it encountered other dire deficiencies, our unlucky ship was eliminated. I left the ship on July 21st, at 16.05. My raft, the commander's raft and Lieutenant Kivanc's raft were saved by an Israeli fisher boat (hydrobiology) after 24 hours...After I straightened my raft numbered 18, I opened the bags which were in it: there was 4 paddles and 2 crackers. There was no water or other subsistence materials. Two procurement

privates on the boat showed the black bags at large and wanted permission to pick them up; I told them to pick them up quickly and come back to the boat; from the bags, we got cans, water, candy, gum and cigarettes. I jumped into the water with a rope around my waist to save Sergeant Ismail. I realized my mistake after I swallowed water; also I could not save the sergeant during this attempt. Nonetheless, a raft further ahead rescued him and brought him to us. He must also have swallowed the Mediterranean water which reminds me of hydrochloride, we both puked for 24 hours. My sickness got so bad that I left the command to Sergeant Erol Gok. He managed the rowing shift and the distribution of the procurements. During 24 hours, I drank two gulps of water and chewed one gum. I managed the first rowing shift and I taught them how to row as much as possible. With the movements of the paddles, we were preventing the boat to turn over from the waves. Around 21.00, the ship exploded in a terrific way and the fire disappeared within five minutes. After that, we started to struggle with waves. The mountains in Cyprus were burning non-stop, and were serving as a torch to as from afar. The sky was amazing, there were phosphorus marbles on the sea surface; besides all that, the waves were approaching as dark masses. We were 15 completely wet individuals on the life raft, and were advancing to our second birth in a way, quietly, unlike our first birth. The next day, the waves were bigger. We saw a big tankship far away (by the horizon); our attempts to get their attention were in vain. The Varta I took over the boat and my white tank top were our main signaling devices. In the morning, I first peed out of the raft. This was a joke before anything else. The throwing up had made me very weak in the afternoon. At the beginning of the event, we had decided to row only to the west. The waves were coming from that direction anyway and we were maintaining our balance by going against them. At noon, one of the young sergeants suggested we turn to the east; Sergeant Erol asked me about the situation; I told him that there was no point in going back the way we came here, to continue in this direction, and that when we would get out of the forbidden area, we could be seen by a trade ship, by giving the example of the ship we saw in the morning. He applied everything I told verbatim, I liked him very much for being cool-headed. The route that the ship we saw in the morning was passing buy must have been a trade route, and this was giving me a lot of hope. As a matter of fact, around evening -I don't remember very well- we saw the Israeli ship; it was maneuvering to save one of our boats (the commander's boat). We started to approach it quickly and signaling to it. This ship could have been a Greek ship; if it was, that would have been really bad luck for us. I understood it was an Israeli ship from the description of its flag. At that time, I was holding a hot canopy over my head and I was exhausted. When I understood it was an Israeli ship, I should say that two drops of tears fell inside me. This was the evening of the second day and neither a plane nor a helicopter looked for us! Why didn't they?

Probably, I will look for an answer to this question my whole life before anything else. Perhaps now, I am guessing the answer to this question in a pessimistic manner; but we cannot gain anything like that. Before that, there are many other questions; I cursed those who created those questions; they will be punished most brutally with their conscience. They saved us as the second boat; I left the boat last; in the meantime, I cannot forget the gunnery officer yelling from the Israeli ship: "Is Zuhtu there?"; we got on board and hugged!...A little later, the third raft (Lieutenant Kivanc's raft) was saved. At first 42 people: the commander, the operations officer, SHM officer, the gunnery officer (first raft), A/Control and myself...When the sun was setting on the evening of July 22nd, I was eating bread with cheese, which brought me to myself, and I was drinking my hot tea. The ship was headed to Italy and was calling the shore with its wireless. As soon as the sun was set, British helicopters were searching the sea!?... The commander gathered us (the officers) at the ship sitting room and told us that it is very likely that our own planes sank us. I almost had a heart attack; I thought about it but I did not want to believe it. They fought us for about an hour; they went over to Cakmak, who came to rescue us, from the north and then they left for the North again. Also, the planes were bombarding the shore in the meantime. When our planes were so close, why were they letting us get hit by the Greek planes? The sad truth; it is sad even to guess! Here is the photo of TCG Kocatepe while it is burning. If the commander's guess was a slap on my face, this photo exploded like a punch in my brain. What could we do!..When we were landing at Hayfa, the gunnery officer gave me his tank top; that way only my feet were naked?!.. until I faced Dz. K. K. in Ankara... We traveled the Hayfa-Tel Aviv distance by bus in 2 hours. In the meantime, we saw an Israel which had superior aspects to Europe.DC-9 Bogazici took us from the Gurian Airport; and landed us to Esenboga in an hour. Dz. K. K. got us clothes from Beymen and gave us 500 Turkish Lira as pocket money. Thank God!...2.    WHAT I REMEMBER ON 18 FEBRUARY 2002:We participated to the NATO and SEA WOLF drills during the months of May through July 1974, with our ship TCG Kocatepe as the "fire control officer (operator officer)". Our commander was the deceased admiral Guven Erkaya (Dz. Kur. Yb.Sea Staff Officer?), who made us reach our utmost potential during our training. We used to hit what we shot at, so to speak.In July, we debarked the interns and headed to Cyprus from the open seas of Marmaris. On 18-19 July 1974, TCG Kocatepe was anchored at the Mersin Harbor with the other ships and the officer on duty was the sublieutenant Zuhtu Gumuscaglayan. The personnel returning from their

day off and who needed to join their troops immediately were coming. The last vehicle arrived stuffed past midnight. There was a state of emergency at the harbor. We weighed anchor around midnight. We arrived at our target Cyprus in the morning of July the 20th. The speech of Bulent Ecevit was being broadcasted on the ship at 07.00. When he said "Our heroic Armed Forces... started the operation", our ships were at a 2 hour distance. In fact, the ships were going to reach the beaches around 09.00. We had started lucky indeed. There was not much resistance. The existing resistance was being shut down by our land bombardment.TCG Kocatepe, TCG M. F. Cakmak and TCG Adatepe were continuing the bombardment of Cyprus and fulfilling their duties as the hitting force of our Navy. We all know the chronology... Let us arrive to what our sublieutenant Zuhtu could not forget:a.   The First Hit:After the destruction of three torpedo boats we were going southwestward. The commander was giving the orders coming from the 1MC (public announcement) circuit of the Naval Forces and other orders. Our commander (the late Naval Forces Admiral Kemal KAYACAN) wants us to "destroy enemy ships ..." after the command., three ships look for enemy ships at 6 miles of speed, just offshore from Baf, but do not find any! My task location was in the area of the calculation table for the coordinated firing of cannonballs below the "central" water level. I was chatting with my personnel, thinking "Would these guys let us hit their ships that easily?! Maybe?!"... when we got the first hit. The alarms were ringing like crazy, the ship was shaken. When I looked at the electronic indicators, I saw that 52 turret lights were not on. The ship's firing power was decreased by 50%.

    b.   Hits:The rocket hits followed one another. Two, three, four, five..."La ilahe illallah, Muhammeden Resulullah!.." I said, and told my personnel to repeat. We committed ourselves to God! I said, friends, we will fight till the end. In the meantime, I cried to God: "Ya Rab, is this the destiny of our family?" My uncle, radio officer Sabahattin Commander said "full speed ahead". When the ship was taking off to full speed from inertia, unexpected things started to happen. The quadrants of the calculating machine were turning like crazy. Nothing was accepting command. At that moment, we received a big hit (bomb). The ship sank into the water (a couple of meters) and slowly came up again. Just like the water overflows a teapot and makes a "COF" sound, the ship sank again with such a noise, and stayed in total darkness. The commands coming from 1MC (general announcements) was completely cut off.

c.Alarms-The Generator-Bow BallThe generator officer called out to me; I gave the order "Immediately start the generator". My second order was "Give electricity to the bow balls". Our officer did his job. 52 turret balls at the back were inoperative, but the 51 turret balls in front were active. I could see this from the electronic table. The tower (ball tower) had been hit, the telephones 1JP (with earphones) were silent. For a moment, I thought I was the only one who survived among the artillery officers. At that moment, the voice of the late artillery officer Ercan Dincol came through from the bow ball but it did not mean anything. AO!... a sound like that!..

A little later, the firing control officer, Naval Lieutenant Kivanc Erkal came to the central; he was in shock. I put the 1JP telephone on Lieutenant Kivanc's ears and gave a fist to his back. The artillery officer at the bow ball yelled "Salvo Fire"! The bow ball self-defending TCG Kocatepe had started firing to the planes. The artillery officer told me the story far later (in Ankara) as follows: "I came eye to eye with the pilot. He fired 2 rockets. I fired the ball and tilted my head to the ground. My whole life passed in front of my eyes. When the two rockets passed above my head and exploded in the water, I came to myself". The artillery officer and the firing management officer continued their firing which protected us. I put myself in danger and started walking in the bottom part of the ship.-The generator was active and was giving power to the bow ball.-I ran to the Y/S (?) center with the commander's order "send an axe to the bridge". Our sergeant was martyred, a soldier was crying in shock. I gave him a slap saying "Come on, my lion!" for him to come back to himself. I said "take this axe and take it to the commander at the bridge". He took the axe and ran like an arrow!.. Then I turned to the lower turret and artillery section of the bow ball; I could not believe my eyes; the sergeant, privates, and all the soldiers, unaware of us being hit, and in a manner more automatic than the most automatic system, were giving ammunition to the ball and the bow ball was continuing to roar. Then I returned to the central and took back the post from the firing control officer.The generator was small-sized. It was not able to feed the bow ball anymore. Approximately 45 minutes of Sea-Air war; and the sea side had collapsed. I gave the order of "put on your life jackets. Get ready to leave" to my personnel. The central personnel put on their life jackets. There was one flat life jacket. Later on, I saw that jacket reach me on the life boat. Interesting!.. We should control everything more thoroughly as officers. I had the emergency lanterns put around the balls and necessary places a month ago. The personnel was getting the ammunition out in dark, only with the help of their hands. We brought down the lantern from the ball and illuminated the dark area to retrieve the ammunition. (This was done when I went under the turret).After I got my personnel out of the central, I left last and closed the hood real tight. When the generator officer said "sir", I remembered him. "Leave that area immediately", I said. He left. When I walked towards the officer lounge, I froze with the whistling sounds of incoming rockets and bombs; I entered in a state of shock. Should I have gone forward, or backward!?.. I was frozen. I felt as if I had lifted up. I saw the central and the hood I was going to escape from above. At that moment, the hood seemed too small to me. An amazing explosion happened. When I got out of shock and came to myself, I saw that the aluminum part on my right side was completely ripped apart. I was not injured at all. I ran to the hood and arrived at the officer lounge upstairs.

d. Leaving the Ship: We were using the officer lounge as a war hospital. Our doctor had given a serum to our defense officer who was laying down, his body all black. Our doctor was really trying hard. I came close to him and said "this man is dead, what are you doing?". He said "Zuhtu, he is not dead, he is still alive". I said "We do not have time, care for the ones who could get better", and left. My classmate, the supply officer lieutenant Caner Gonyeli asked "Zuhtu what is happening?". I brushed him over by saying something like nothing much. That was our last talk. The second engineer had his finger cut off and was waiting for a medical dressing. I went out to the corridor in front of the lounge. The planes were diving continuously. They must have run out of rockets, because they were bombarding us with a stream of ammunition. We could not get on the deck. The defense officer came to the corridor from the engine side. At his back, from the corridor, there was a big black smoke. I asked "where is the main engineer?". He said he was stuck at the engine room with the other officers. The second engineer was also injured. I said "who will tell the commander we will have to abandon ship?". He said "Now I am going up to the bridge" and he left.The ship was burning; the generators were not working; the command centers were destroyed. The commands were not reaching anyone. During the couple of minutes we were waiting and when the plane attacks were ended, the order "personnel to the abandonment areas" was heard. We went up on the deck. The ship was burning, light guns were firing "ciuw, ciuw" at the light guns arsenal, some personnels' shoes were sticking to the deck. Half of the raft personnel was here. Barrels from the back ball had fallen on the deck, some martyrs were visibly dead. I went back to my place. My officer came next to me and said "should I cut loose the raft?". We were given our abandonment spots. What was left to do was to report and leave. We could not do the reports. I said "cut the raft loose". This first raft was inflated and lowered to the water in an upright position. I told my officer "you wait, I will straighten the raft". I jumped into the water. I straightened the raft and looked up to see that the personnel of TCG Kocatepe was abandoning ship. This operation lasted approximately 5 minutes. I saw some personnel who was wearing an inflated life jacket, and yet still drowning by swallowing water. It was impossible to help everyone. We have seen martyrs who were wearing life jackets. We started to grab the personnel who managed to stay afloat. The planes had destroyed all the rafts on the right side. The ship personnel was saved by the rafts on the left side. In my 12-people raft, we were 16 people. I had the medical privates. The central officers said black bags!.. We took the black bags, we had sugar and water; I put the crackers in a hidden place. This is what has happened to us. We could even end up in Egypt. We should be careful.5-10 minutes after the abandonment, the firing management officer came closer to me with his raft. He said "Zuhtu, let's go back to the ship and try to put out the fire". When I was telling him "the arsenal exploded, the command centers are destroyed, the situation is impossible and I would not go back!..", the planes dove and threw a napalm to the TCG Kocatepe; the ship disappeared in flames. Our eyes were wide open! After this last plane attack, we tied the rafts together. This way, it would be easier for us to be rescued. We saw the ship M. F. Cakmak, coming through the waters; with the biggest Turkish flag raised; lowering its life boat to save us. At that moment, air attack had started. Alas!..e.Sea-Air War The Turkish Air Force started battling with the M.F. Cakmak destroyer with 12 planes, as far as I could count. The cannonballs from the ship were beating the sky, making

black clouds. We cut the rafts and separated from each other, decreasing the size of the target!.. The ship was making sharp turns to the left and right to miss the rockets and bombs. The plane rockets and bombs were exploding in the sea, creating columns surpassing the height of the ship. The ship escaped while battling and got lost in the horizon. We heard two great explosion noises from behind the horizon. According to my understanding, a plane had fallen (I do not know the truth). The plane attacks ended after this last attack. M.F. Cakmak destroyer, I believe, saved our lives despite all that happened.f.The Explosion of the TCG Kocatepe

As evening fell, the situation looked like this: The three rafts had drifted apart from one another over the sea. I estimated that the rafts had a speed of 3 knots, due to the effect of the wind. To get lieutenant Ismail to the raft, I tied a thin rope around my waist, ordered my personnel and jumped to the water. However, the raft accelerated with the wind pulled me and the rope squeezed my waist, my mouth opened. I swallowed the extremely salty water of the Mediterranean. I got on the raft again. Yelling and screaming, we made our lieutenant get on a raft near him. But the water I swallowed made me throw up and spit blood eventually. We were lucky when we were rescued relatively early. Hours later, when it got dark, a great explosion happened, one I think was seen by everywhere at the Mediterranean. A fire ball elevated to the sky like an atomic bomb explosion. TCG Kocatepe had exploded. It sank to the waters of the Mediterranean sea with a few heavily wounded personnel and martyrs at the shores of Baf (approximately at a depth of 1256 meters). It became history.g.Rescue from the Sea

With the effect of the wind, the waves got bigger at night. We organized a shift for rowing on the life boat. This way, we were able to keep the raft against the waves and preventing it from tipping over. In one or two critical situations, I intervened. I knew the job well since I was practicing sea pentathlon at school. We took off our ranks at the raft. Since the shore was the enemy side, we couldn't go there. It was morning. We saw a trade ship in the far horizon. This gave us hope. We were going towards the southwest outside the area of the "notice to the airmen" (Ceren: the word is NOTAM, a bulletin for airmen). The wind was helping us. A patrol plane circled on top of us. We got hopeful and waved our shirts. The day continued on. Hopelessness came back again. There was no one coming, or no rescue operation!.. In 24 hours, I drank 2 gulps of water and chewed one gum; I was puking and spitting blood. I left the command to the police lieutenant Erol Gok. He managed the shifts (for rowing) and the distribution of food. He stopped the ones who wanted to row towards the land.

He quietly asked me and I told him about the notice to the airmen. He said "ok sir".

h.Movetyam:A fishing ship from a private school in Israel came to our help in the afternoon. A student had seen the rafts from the mast. First they took the raft of the commander on board, then lieutenant Zuhtu's, and later the firing control officer's raft and headed towards Haifa. They were announcing that they had rescued Turkish seamen from their wireless. They offered us tea and some breakfast. I could not forget the taste of that tea and bread after suffering from hunger. The commander called the lieutenants to the ship lounge. He said "guys, listen to me carefully". When he said "I think Turkish planes sank us", we froze and looked at the horizon. We went up on the deck and laid down on the ropes. Three rafts were saved. There was a lot more personnel in the sea. When we arrived at Haifa, there was a lot of curious people around. The commander ordered us to hide from cameras. Most of us were half naked. We took the id cards written for us across the harbor, leaping on the burning asphalt with naked feet. Then we were put on busses and headed towards Ben Gurian airport. The radio was announcing to Israel that Movetyam rescued Turkish seamen, called by old Jews "Mustafa Kemalalar!..".k. The Turkish Airlines Plane:We were airborne towards Ankara from Ben Gurian with the special plane called Bogazici that the Turkish Airlines had sent. The captain pilot flew us from over Cyprus. Cyprus was burning at some areas. In his speech telling "heroes, you are the ones who are making us live this pride", we could not hold back our tears. We arrived to Ankara. At the Esenboga airport, they gave me a corporal's shirt to cover my naked body. It didn't fit me, we laughed...l. Naval Forces:We arrived to the headquarters; we moved on to the basement below. The commander vice admiral Kemal Kayacan kissed all of us. Welcome. Crying...We took a shower. One of the soldiers from the headquarter offered me underwear; I accepted gladly. After the shower, I put on the clean underwear of the soldier. Later on that night, they opened BEYMEN (Ceren's note: fancy Turkish clothing store) and got us dressed. The next day, they asked us about our health. We said we were ok. I got my teeth checked. I had not gone to the ward of internal medicine; I could not. We were advised to not ask for anything. But I could not eat food for two years. Toast, boiled potato and diet food helped overcome my gastritis. My intestinal colitis had become my lifelong friend. I learned how to live with these sicknesses. Thank God!...3. Memories from Personnela) CommanderLate lieutenant colonel Güven ERKAYA taught me in person how to correct my faults in shooting. He made me become a good cannonball operator (artillery man). He left the lost and found list to me. He was saying that he would ask for his retirement if these were our own planes. It was good that he had become naval commander. I was saddened by his untimely death. I carried his casket among the military police to the gun carriage. For me, he was someone to be missed. May he rest in peace!...b) Chief EngineerNaval major commander Metin Sulus was martyred. I loved him very much. On July the 20th, 1974, around noon, I went up to the lounge, taking advantage of the cease of land bombardment. Metin Sulus was there. I gave my salute; sat down. The late artilleryman entered second. Third, the shooting control officer came in. The late artilleryman laughed out loud; he was reading the book called "GRAF VON SPE", on the German ship which sank in Argentina. He said "it is

always the artilleryman who dies". I could not forget this memory of his. We did not see each other again. May he RIP.c) The Gunnery OfficerThe late naval captain Ercan Dincol had established a great dialogue with his personnel. He was giving his orders to us clearly; he was immediately reporting the successful ball shots and the destroyed targets to us. For instance; the Greeks were firing some cannonballs from a hotel on a Girne hill and were running away. When we destroyed the ball and the surrounding area in front of the hotel, he reported the result by telling us "guys, the windows of the hotel have grown bigger!.". He reported the Greek land artilleryman's close shot to us as "they scraped our painting". At the break, I went up to the deck to check out the paint that fell there. He reported our eliminating of 3 Greek torpedo boats in 30 seconds to the west of the Kormacit cape as "guys, they are now swimming in the sea". I was the last personnel getting out of the raft when we were boarding the Movetyam ship. I cannot forget the artillery officer's cry "Is Zuhtu there? Is Zuhtu there?" When I asked, "why me", he replied "I did not tell you to leave, I got really worried about you" and I smiled. He gave his undershirt to me in Haifa. He died of leukemia at the age of 39. At the Naval Forces, a colonel had told him "What did you do there? We were sitting on pins and needles". Unbelievable!.. May he RIP...d) Signal OfficerThe martyr Naval first lieutenant Necati Gurkaya jumped at the sea with the wireless on his back, according to the War Operation Center officer Ozhan Bakkalbasioglu. He never came out. He was a very valuable officer. He had entered the Academy. His wife would send him away from the shore of Golcuk by turning on and off her car's lights every time we used to go on a journey. Every seaman misses that sending off and receiving... However, it must be very sad that those who left never came back.f) War Operation Center OfficerThe naval first lieutenant Ozhan Bakkalbasioglu was a good officer. He was one of the closest to me. We got appointed to the Naval High School Command (?) later on. He used to say "If I knew who jumped to that sea first, I would shoot him!". I disagree. But I could not tell him I was the one who jumped first. I wish him the best...g) Supply OfficerThe martyr naval lieutenant Caner Gonyeli was a very dear friend of mine from Cyprus. He was married with two kids. He waited to be rescued at sea for three and a half days. According to what I heard, he jumped from the raft to the sea saying "they are giving water below that tree across us" and he never came out. He had lost against thirst and nature. Also, I was deeply saddened by the slanders against his wife and her poverty.h) Fire Control OfficerNaval lieutenant Kivanc Erkal later retired as a naval colonel. Whenever he sees me, he stops all conversation and comes over to kiss me and talks to me, which is very nice. I think he is a genuine human being... Him and I gave the "salvo fire" command together... May God give him health.i) Master at ArmsChief Petty Officer Erol GÖK: He really helped me in the life boat. He kept his cool even in the worst of situations. He was a very valuable person. We always need the likes of him. I wish him a good life.j) Ball Manzume (?) LieutenantMartyr lieutenant sergeant Ayhan İNCEKARA: He was saved by the ship TCG BERK from the

sea. When he wanted water, they let him drink too much, which led him to die from too much water. I am very saddened, a person who is cultured and dignified like him is not easily found. We should not lose them easily, we should keep them alive...k) Ball Manzume (?) LieutenantMartyr lieutenant senior sergeant Hasan DİŞ: Seeing him drown with the life jacket and not being able to help made me very sad. I could not forget that scene my whole life. This martyr was the most interesting example to emphasize the importance of education. He was loving, nice, he could have been saved, Ah!..l) Artillery PrivateMartyr Hasan SÖNMEZ 73-2/ 5675:  He was such a beautiful private. He used to mop the whole ship alone. Whenever I talked to him, he was smiling. I asked him "why are we going to Cyprus?". He said "Cyprus is ours commander".Yes, Cyprus was ours, and it had a price!...4. Final notes-Questions-Results:1) When we arrived to the open shores of Girne during the morning of the invasion, it looked like the whole Cyprus was filled by Greek flags. We could only see one or two Turkish flags at the hillsides. There was no sight of the usual, laurel-leafed Cyprus flag.2) The salt of the Mediterranean made our arms wounded when we were rowing. Our shirts were affected by salt, injuring our bodies. When we took them off, sunburns were the problem causing the wounds.3)   A Soviet ship was entering our convoy, reporting it wants to help. We followed it and chased it away. We water-bombed an unknown submarine to the North of Cyprus. Later on, we were told that a Soviet submarine with a broken wing went up through the Bosphorus.4)   It is still being told that the Greek ships we were looking around to sink never existed, and it was completely wrong intelligence... Couldn't we have cross-checked the intelligence with different sources?5)   Which state forces were responsible for mixing up our wireless signals and radars connecting us to the Electronic Operation Center?6)   Why was the rescue operation so late?7)   If the passwords are not matching, couldn't we have a temporary password system which could come into effect after seeing so many Turkish flags and hearing Turkish swearwords? Why were we so late to evaluate the pilot who the M.F. Cakmak saved off shore Girne, counting his genealogy?8)   Why were the memories asked from us now delayed for so long?9)   Will we always be able to take lessons from our mistakes for success? Or will we always hide these mistakes?10) In extraordinary situations, officers who have a sense of initiative will take us to victory. Eduation, education, education...

I believe these questions have been asked many times. They have been worked on. As a nation, please let us work on these topics, and learn more.I was lucky to escape after living through these events, and to be positioned on TCG Kocatepe. I do not regret the actions I have taken. I believe some of these events were the grace of some extraordinary forces. I always learned to say "this is good enough". I am a soldier, son of a soldier, that is probably why I did not write before I got asked. You asked and finally I shared my memories. My wishes are:

May there not be similar disasters in the future like TCG Kocatepe. May we, as the Turkish nation and the Turkish Armed Forces, be victorious forever. Long live the Turkish Republic and the Turkish Armed Forces...My gratitude to our martyrs, veterans, our whole nation who served under this flag; our soldiers, to the "Mustafa Kemalalar"...

When the General Staff Department of Studies asked me to write my memories and send them, I gladly accepted the task of writing the events, for better or for worse, as your friend who has been in this war in person.In my writing, I did not mention the chronological history, which I assume every one knows. The document you will read consists entirely of what I remember from my memories and my diary.When my friend Suleyman Ertekin proposed me to write the memories in question, I thought about it for a bit and deeming that sharing what I have been through with you and especially with "besbinler junior" would be useful, I decided to write. I wanted my young friends to read these lines like a story, think about the Cyprus issue, which has become very relevant again these days, and to derive the lessons they deem appropriate for themselves.

Zühtü GÜMÜŞÇAĞLAYAN

MY MEMORIES OF THE CYPRUS PEACE OPERATION:From my Diary, written on 4 November 1974

I tell myself, let me write what I remember from the day of 21 July 1974, but I do not want to write. I am afraid I will not be able to write everything. To the West of Cyprus, we were attacked by planes. We fought the planes for an hour, at the end, we left our ship which was just a target. The ship exploded in the evening... The war we got into was the war of our destiny; our destiny let us live!...We bombarded the land, we sank the torpedo boat, we chased Greek ships, we were sank by Turkish planes; 54 among us became martyrs. The crew of the ship was 236 people. Almost half of all dead died in the sea after leaving the ship; most of us were half dead when we were saved!?...

TCG Kocatepe is a heartbreak, an internal wound; if the Navy can find an ointment to heal that wound, nobody can beat us!.. It lacked U/S weapons, lacked personnel, lacked Varta batteries, lacked, lacked and at the end, when it encountered other dire deficiencies, our unlucky ship was eliminated. I left the ship on July 21st, at 16.05. My raft, the commander's raft and Lieutenant Kivanc's raft were saved by an Israeli fisher boat (hydrobiology) after 24 hours...After I straightened my raft numbered 18, I opened the bags which were in it: there was 4 paddles and 2 crackers. There was no water or other subsistence materials. Two procurement privates on the boat showed the black bags at large and wanted permission to pick them up; I told them to pick them up quickly and come back to the boat; from the bags, we got cans, water, candy, gum and cigarettes. I jumped into the water with a rope around my waist to save Sergeant Ismail. I realized my mistake after I swallowed water; also I could not save the sergeant during this attempt. Nonetheless, a raft further ahead rescued him and brought him to us. He must also have swallowed the Mediterranean water which reminds me of hydrochloride, we both puked for 24 hours. My sickness got so bad that I left the command to Sergeant Erol Gok. He managed the rowing shift and the distribution of the procurements. During 24 hours, I drank two gulps of water and chewed one gum. I managed the first rowing shift and I taught them how to row as much as possible. With the movements of the paddles, we were preventing the boat to turn over from the waves. Around 21.00, the ship exploded in a terrific way and the fire disappeared within five minutes. After that, we started to struggle with waves. The mountains in Cyprus were burning non-stop, and were serving as a torch to as from afar. The sky was amazing, there were phosphorus marbles on the sea surface; besides all that, the waves were approaching as dark masses. We were 15 completely wet individuals on the life raft, and were advancing to our second birth in a way, quietly, unlike our first birth. The next day, the waves were bigger. We saw a big tankship far away (by the horizon); our attempts to get their attention were in vain. The Varta I took over the boat and my white tank top were our main signaling devices. In the morning, I first peed out of the raft. This was a joke before anything else. The throwing up had made me very weak in the afternoon. At the beginning of the event, we had decided to row only to the west. The waves were coming from that direction anyway and we were maintaining our balance by going against them. At noon, one of the young sergeants suggested we turn to the east; Sergeant Erol asked me about the situation; I told him that there was no point in going back the way we came here, to continue in this direction, and that when we would get out of the forbidden area, we could be seen by a trade ship, by giving the example of the ship we saw in the morning. He applied everything I told verbatim, I liked him very much for being cool-headed. The route that the ship we saw in the morning was passing buy must have been a trade route, and this was giving me a lot of hope. As a matter

of fact, around evening -I don't remember very well- we saw the Israeli ship; it was maneuvering to save one of our boats (the commander's boat). We started to approach it quickly and signaling to it. This ship could have been a Greek ship; if it was, that would have been really bad luck for us. I understood it was an Israeli ship from the description of its flag. At that time, I was holding a hot canopy over my head and I was exhausted. When I understood it was an Israeli ship, I should say that two drops of tears fell inside me. This was the evening of the second day and neither a plane nor a helicopter looked for us! Why didn't they?

Probably, I will look for an answer to this question my whole life before anything else. Perhaps now, I am guessing the answer to this question in a pessimistic manner; but we cannot gain anything like that. Before that, there are many other questions; I cursed those who created those questions; they will be punished most brutally with their conscience. They saved us as the second boat; I left the boat last; in the meantime, I cannot forget the gunnery officer yelling from the Israeli ship: "Is Zuhtu there?"; we got on board and hugged!...A little later, the third raft (Lieutenant Kivanc's raft) was saved. At first 42 people, the Captain: the Captain, the operations officer, SHM officer, the gunnery officer (first raft), A/Control and myself...When the sun was setting on the evening of July 22nd, I was eating bread with cheese, which brought me to myself, and I was drinking my hot tea. The ship was headed to Italy and was calling the shore with its wireless. As soon as the sun was set, British helicopters were searching the sea!?... The commander gathered us (the officers) at the ship sitting room and told us that it is very likely that our own planes sank us. I almost had a heart attack; I thought about it but I did not want to believe it. They fought us for about an hour; they went over to Cakmak, who came to rescue us, from the north and then they left for the North again. Also, the planes were bombarding the shore in the meantime. When our planes were so close, why were they letting us get hit by the Greek planes? The sad truth; it is sad even to guess! Here is the photo of TCG Kocatepe while it is burning. If the commander's guess was a slap on my face, this photo exploded like a punch in my brain. What could we do!..When we were landing at Hayfa, the gunnery officer gave me his tank top; that way only my feet were naked?!.. until I faced Dz. K. K. in Ankara... We traveled the Hayfa-Tel Aviv distance by bus in 2 hours. In the meantime, we saw an Israel which had superior aspects to Europe.DC-9 Bogazici took us from the Gurian Airport; and landed us to Esenboga in an hour. Dz. K. K. got us clothes from Beymen and gave us 500 Turkish Lira as pocket money. Thank God!...2. WHAT I REMEMBER ON 18 FEBRUARY 2002:We participated to the NATO and SEA WOLF drills during the months of May through July 1974, with our ship TCG Kocatepe as the "fire control officer (operator officer)". Our commander was the deceased admiral Guven Erkaya (Dz. Kur. Yb.Sea Staff Officer?), who made us reach our utmost potential during our training. We used to hit what we shot at, so to speak.In July, we debarked the interns and headed to Cyprus from the open seas of Marmaris. On 18-19 July 1974, TCG Kocatepe was anchored at the Mersin Harbor with the other ships and the officer on duty was the sublieutenant Zuhtu Gumuscaglayan. The personnel returning from their day off and who needed to

join their troops immediately were coming. The last vehicle arrived stuffed past midnight. There was a state of emergency at the harbor. We weighed anchor around midnight. We arrived at our target Cyprus in the morning of July the 20th. The speech of Bulent Ecevit was being broadcasted on the ship at 07.00. When he said "Our heroic Armed Forces... started the operation", our ships were at a 2 hour distance. In fact, the ships were going to reach the beaches around 09.00. We had started lucky indeed. There was not much resistance. The existing resistance was being shut down by our land bombardment.TCG Kocatepe, TCG M. F. Cakmak and TCG Adatepe were continuing the bombardment of Cyprus and fulfilling their duties as the hitting force of our Navy. We all know the chronology... Let us arrive to what our sublieutenant Zuhtu could not forget:a.   The First Hit:After the destruction of three torpedo boats we were going southwestward. The commander was giving the orders coming from the 1MC (public announcement) circuit of the Naval Forces and other orders. Our commander (the late Naval Forces Admiral Kemal KAYACAN) wants us to "destroy enemy ships ..." after the command., three ships look for enemy ships at 6 miles of speed, just offshore from Baf, but do not find any! My task location was in the area of the calculation table for the coordinated firing of cannonballs below the "central" water level. I was chatting with my personnel, thinking "Would these guys let us hit their ships that easily?! Maybe?!"... when we got the first hit. The alarms were ringing like crazy, the ship was shaken. When I looked at the electronic indicators, I saw that 52 turret lights were not on. The ship's firing power was decreased by 50%.

    b.   Hits:The rocket hits followed one another. Two, three, four, five..."La ilahe illallah, Muhammeden Resulullah!.." I said, and told my personnel to repeat. We committed ourselves to God! I said, friends, we will fight till the end. In the meantime, I cried to God: "Ya Rab, is this the destiny of our family?" My uncle, radio officer Sabahattin Commander said "full speed ahead". When the ship was taking off to full speed from inertia, unexpected things started to happen. The quadrants of the calculating machine were turning like crazy. Nothing was accepting command. At that moment, we received a big hit (bomb). The ship sank into the water (a couple of meters) and slowly came up again. Just like the water overflows a teapot and makes a "COF" sound, the ship sank again with such a noise, and stayed in total darkness. The commands coming from 1MC (general announcements) was completely cut off.

c.Alarms-The Generator-Bow BallThe generator officer called out to me; I gave the order "Immediately start the generator". My second order was "Give electricity to the bow balls". Our officer did his job. 52 turret balls at the back were inoperative, but the 51 turret balls in front were active. I could see this from the electronic table. The tower (ball tower) had been hit, the telephones 1JP (with earphones) were silent. For a moment, I thought I was the only one who survived among the artillery officers. At that moment, the voice of the late artillery officer Ercan Dincol came through from the bow ball but it did not mean anything. AO!... a sound like that!..

A little later, the firing control officer, Naval Lieutenant Kivanc Erkal came to the central; he was in shock. I put the 1JP telephone on Lieutenant Kivanc's ears and gave a fist to his back. The artillery officer at the bow ball yelled "Salvo Fire"! The bow ball self-defending TCG Kocatepe had started firing to the planes. The artillery officer told me the story far later (in Ankara) as follows: "I came eye to eye with the pilot. He fired 2 rockets. I fired the ball and tilted my head to the ground. My whole life passed in front of my eyes. When the two rockets passed above my head and exploded in the water, I came to myself". The artillery officer and the firing management officer continued their firing which protected us. I put myself in danger and started walking in the bottom part of the ship.-The generator was active and was giving power to the bow ball.-I ran to the Y/S (?) center with the commander's order "send an axe to the bridge". Our sergeant was martyred, a soldier was crying in shock. I gave him a slap saying "Come on, my lion!" for him to come back to himself. I said "take this axe and take it to the commander at the bridge". He took the axe and ran like an arrow!.. Then I turned to the lower turret and artillery section of the bow ball; I could not believe my eyes; the sergeant, privates, and all the soldiers, unaware of us being hit, and in a manner more automatic than the most automatic system, were giving ammunition to the ball and the bow ball was continuing to roar. Then I returned to the central and took back the post from the firing control officer.The generator was small-sized. It was not able to feed the bow ball anymore. Approximately 45 minutes of Sea-Air war; and the sea side had collapsed. I gave the order of "put on your life jackets. Get ready to leave" to my personnel. The central personnel put on their life jackets. There was one flat life jacket. Later on, I saw that jacket reach me on the life boat. Interesting!.. We should control everything more thoroughly as officers. I had the emergency lanterns put around the balls and necessary places a month ago. The personnel was getting the ammunition out in dark, only with the help of their hands. We brought down the lantern from the ball and illuminated the dark area to retrieve the ammunition. (This was done when I went under the turret).After I got my personnel out of the central, I left last and closed the hood real tight. When the generator officer said "sir", I remembered him. "Leave that area immediately", I said. He left. When I walked towards the officer lounge, I froze with the whistling sounds of incoming rockets and bombs; I entered in a state of shock. Should I have gone forward, or backward!?.. I was frozen. I felt as if I had lifted up. I saw the central and the hood I was going to escape from above. At that moment, the hood seemed too small to me. An amazing explosion happened. When I got out of shock and came to myself, I saw that the aluminum part on my right side was completely ripped apart. I was not injured at all. I ran to the hood and arrived at the officer lounge upstairs.

d. Leaving the Ship: We were using the officer lounge as a war hospital. Our doctor had given a serum to our defense officer who was laying down, his body all black. Our doctor was really trying hard. I came close to him and said "this man is dead, what are you doing?". He said "Zuhtu, he is not dead, he is still alive". I said "We do not have time, care for the ones who could get better", and left. My classmate, the supply officer lieutenant Caner Gonyeli asked "Zuhtu what is happening?". I brushed him over by saying something like nothing much. That was our last talk. The second engineer had his finger cut off and was

waiting for a medical dressing. I went out to the corridor in front of the lounge. The planes were diving continuously. They must have run out of rockets, because they were bombarding us with a stream of ammunition. We could not get on the deck. The defense officer came to the corridor from the engine side. At his back, from the corridor, there was a big black smoke. I asked "where is the main engineer?". He said he was stuck at the engine room with the other officers. The second engineer was also injured. I said "who will tell the commander we will have to abandon ship?". He said "Now I am going up to the bridge" and he left.The ship was burning; the generators were not working; the command centers were destroyed. The commands were not reaching anyone. During the couple of minutes we were waiting and when the plane attacks were ended, the order "personnel to the abandonment areas" was heard. We went up on the deck. The ship was burning, light guns were firing "ciuw, ciuw" at the light guns arsenal, some personnels' shoes were sticking to the deck. Half of the raft personnel was here. Barrels from the back ball had fallen on the deck, some martyrs were visibly dead. I went back to my place. My officer came next to me and said "should I cut loose the raft?". We were given our abandonment spots. What was left to do was to report and leave. We could not do the reports. I said "cut the raft loose". This first raft was inflated and lowered to the water in an upright position. I told my officer "you wait, I will straighten the raft". I jumped into the water. I straightened the raft and looked up to see that the personnel of TCG Kocatepe was abandoning ship. This operation lasted approximately 5 minutes. I saw some personnel who was wearing an inflated life jacket, and yet still drowning by swallowing water. It was impossible to help everyone. We have seen martyrs who were wearing life jackets. We started to grab the personnel who managed to stay afloat. The planes had destroyed all the rafts on the right side. The ship personnel was saved by the rafts on the left side. In my 12-people raft, we were 16 people. I had the medical privates. The central officers said black bags!.. We took the black bags, we had sugar and water; I put the crackers in a hidden place. This is what has happened to us. We could even end up in Egypt. We should be careful.5-10 minutes after the abandonment, the firing management officer came closer to me with his raft. He said "Zuhtu, let's go back to the ship and try to put out the fire". When I was telling him "the arsenal exploded, the command centers are destroyed, the situation is impossible and I would not go back!..", the planes dove and threw a napalm to the TCG Kocatepe; the ship disappeared in flames. Our eyes were wide open! After this last plane attack, we tied the rafts together. This way, it would be easier for us to be rescued. We saw the ship M. F. Cakmak, coming through the waters; with the biggest Turkish flag raised; lowering its life boat to save us. At that moment, air attack had started. Alas!..e.Sea-Air War The Turkish Air Force started battling with the M.F. Cakmak destroyer with 12 planes, as far as I could count. The cannonballs from the ship were beating the sky, making black clouds. We cut the rafts and separated from each other, decreasing the size of the target!.. The ship was making sharp turns to the left and right to miss the rockets and bombs. The plane rockets and bombs were exploding in the sea, creating columns surpassing the height of the ship. The ship escaped while battling and got lost in the horizon. We heard two great explosion noises from behind the horizon. According to my understanding, a plane had fallen (I do not know the truth). The plane attacks ended after this last attack. M.F. Cakmak destroyer, I believe, saved our lives despite all that happened.f.The Explosion of the TCG Kocatepe

As evening fell, the situation looked like this: The three rafts had drifted apart from one another over the sea. I estimated that the rafts had a speed of 3 knots, due to the effect of the wind. To get lieutenant Ismail to the raft, I tied a thin rope around my waist, ordered my personnel and jumped to the water. However, the raft accelerated with the wind pulled me and the rope squeezed my waist, my mouth opened. I swallowed the extremely salty water of the Mediterranean. I got on the raft again. Yelling and screaming, we made our lieutenant get on a raft near him. But the water I swallowed made me throw up and spit blood eventually. We were lucky when we were rescued relatively early. Hours later, when it got dark, a great explosion happened, one I think was seen by everywhere at the Mediterranean. A fire ball elevated

to the sky like an atomic bomb explosion. TCG Kocatepe had exploded. It sank to the waters of the Mediterranean sea with a few heavily wounded personnel and martyrs at the shores of Baf (approximately at a depth of 1256 meters). It became history.g.Rescue from the Sea

With the effect of the wind, the waves got bigger at night. We organized a shift for rowing on the life boat. This way, we were able to keep the raft against the waves and preventing it from tipping over. In one or two critical situations, I intervened. I knew the job well since I was practicing sea pentathlon at school. We took off our ranks at the raft. Since the shore was the enemy side, we couldn't go there. It was morning. We saw a trade ship in the far horizon. This gave us hope. We were going towards the southwest outside the area of the "notice to the airmen" (Ceren: the word is NOTAM, a bulletin for airmen). The wind was helping us. A patrol plane circled on top of us. We got hopeful and waved our shirts. The day continued on. Hopelessness came back again. There was no one coming, or no rescue operation!.. In 24 hours, I drank 2 gulps of water and chewed one gum; I was puking and spitting blood. I left the command to the police lieutenant Erol Gok. He managed the shifts (for rowing) and the distribution of food. He stopped the ones who wanted to row towards the land.

He quietly asked me and I told him about the notice to the airmen. He said "ok sir".

h.Movetyam:A fishing ship from a private school in Israel came to our help in the afternoon. A student had seen the rafts from the mast. First they took the raft of the commander on board, then lieutenant Zuhtu's, and later the firing control officer's raft and headed towards Haifa. They were announcing that they had rescued Turkish seamen from their wireless. They offered us tea and some breakfast. I could not forget the taste of that tea and bread after suffering from hunger. The commander called the lieutenants to the ship lounge. He said "guys, listen to me carefully". When he said "I think Turkish planes sank us", we froze and looked at the horizon. We went up on the deck and laid down on the ropes. Three rafts were saved. There was a lot more personnel in the sea. When we arrived at Haifa, there was a lot of curious people around. The commander ordered us to hide from cameras. Most of us were half naked. We took the id cards written for us across the harbor, leaping on the burning asphalt with naked feet. Then we were put on busses and headed towards Ben Gurian airport. The radio was announcing to Israel that Movetyam rescued Turkish seamen, called by old Jews "Mustafa Kemalalar!..".k. The Turkish Airlines Plane:We were airborne towards Ankara from Ben Gurian with the special plane called Bogazici that the Turkish Airlines had sent. The captain pilot flew us from over Cyprus. Cyprus was burning at some areas. In his speech telling "heroes, you are the ones who are making us live this pride", we could not hold back our tears. We arrived to Ankara. At the Esenboga airport, they gave me a corporal's shirt to cover my naked body. It didn't fit me, we laughed...l. Naval Forces:We arrived to the headquarters; we moved on to the basement below. The commander vice admiral

Kemal Kayacan kissed all of us. Welcome. Crying...We took a shower. One of the soldiers from the headquarter offered me underwear; I accepted gladly. After the shower, I put on the clean underwear of the soldier. Later on that night, they opened BEYMEN (Ceren's note: fancy Turkish clothing store) and got us dressed. The next day, they asked us about our health. We said we were ok. I got my teeth checked. I had not gone to the ward of internal medicine; I could not. We were advised to not ask for anything. But I could not eat food for two years. Toast, boiled potato and diet food helped overcome my gastritis. My intestinal colitis had become my lifelong friend. I learned how to live with these sicknesses. Thank God!...3. Memories from Personnela) CommanderLate lieutenant colonel Güven ERKAYA taught me in person how to correct my faults in shooting. He made me become a good cannonball operator (artillery man). He left the lost and found list to me. He was saying that he would ask for his retirement if these were our own planes. It was good that he had become naval commander. I was saddened by his untimely death. I carried his casket among the military police to the gun carriage. For me, he was someone to be missed. May he rest in peace!...b) Chief EngineerNaval major commander Metin Sulus was martyred. I loved him very much. On July the 20th, 1974, around noon, I went up to the lounge, taking advantage of the cease of land bombardment. Metin Sulus was there. I gave my salute; sat down. The late artilleryman entered second. Third, the shooting control officer came in. The late artilleryman laughed out loud; he was reading the book called "GRAF VON SPE", on the German ship which sank in Argentina. He said "it is always the artilleryman who dies". I could not forget this memory of his. We did not see each other again. May he RIP.c) The Gunnery OfficerThe late naval captain Ercan Dincol had established a great dialogue with his personnel. He was giving his orders to us clearly; he was immediately reporting the successful ball shots and the destroyed targets to us. For instance; the Greeks were firing some cannonballs from a hotel on a Girne hill and were running away. When we destroyed the ball and the surrounding area in front of the hotel, he reported the result by telling us "guys, the windows of the hotel have grown bigger!.". He reported the Greek land artilleryman's close shot to us as "they scraped our painting". At the break, I went up to the deck to check out the paint that fell there. He reported our eliminating of 3 Greek torpedo boats in 30 seconds to the west of the Kormacit cape as "guys, they are now swimming in the sea". I was the last personnel getting out of the raft when we were boarding the Movetyam ship. I cannot forget the artillery officer's cry "Is Zuhtu there? Is Zuhtu there?" When I asked, "why me", he replied "I did not tell you to leave, I got really worried about you" and I smiled. He gave his undershirt to me in Haifa. He died of leukemia at the age of 39. At the Naval Forces, a colonel had told him "What did you do there? We were sitting on pins and needles". Unbelievable!.. May he RIP...d) Signal OfficerThe martyr Naval first lieutenant Necati Gurkaya jumped at the sea with the wireless on his back, according to the War Operation Center officer Ozhan Bakkalbasioglu. He never came out. He was a very valuable officer. He had entered the Academy. His wife would send him away from the shore of Golcuk by turning on and off her car's lights every time we used to go on a journey. Every seaman misses that sending off and receiving... However, it must be very sad that those who left never came back.f) War Operation Center OfficerThe naval first lieutenant Ozhan Bakkalbasioglu was a good officer. He was one of the closest to me. We got appointed to the Naval High School Command (?) later on. He used to say "If I knew who jumped to that sea first, I would shoot him!". I disagree. But I could not tell him I was the one who jumped first. I wish him the best...g) Supply OfficerThe martyr naval lieutenant Caner Gonyeli was a very dear friend of mine from Cyprus. He was married with two kids. He waited to be rescued at sea for three and a half days. According to what I heard, he

jumped from the raft to the sea saying "they are giving water below that tree across us" and he never came out. He had lost against thirst and nature. Also, I was deeply saddened by the slanders against his wife and her poverty.h) Fire Control OfficerNaval lieutenant Kivanc Erkal later retired as a naval colonel. Whenever he sees me, he stops all conversation and comes over to kiss me and talks to me, which is very nice. I think he is a genuine human being... Him and I gave the "salvo fire" command together... May God give him health.Master at ArmsChief Petty Officer Erol GÖK: He really helped me in the life boat. He kept his cool even in the worst of situations. He was a very valuable person. We always need the likes of him. I wish him a good life.j) Ball Manzume (?) LieutenantMartyr lieutenant sergeant Ayhan İNCEKARA: He was saved by the ship TCG BERK from the sea. When he wanted water, they let him drink too much, which led him to die from too much water. I am very saddened, a person who is cultured and dignified like him is not easily found. We should not lose them easily, we should keep them alive...k) Ball Manzume (?) LieutenantMartyr lieutenant senior sergeant Hasan DİŞ: Seeing him drown with the life jacket and not being able to help made me very sad. I could not forget that scene my whole life. This martyr was the most interesting example to emphasize the importance of education. He was loving, nice, he could have been saved, Ah!..l) Artillery PrivateMartyr Hasan SÖNMEZ 73-2/ 5675:  He was such a beautiful private. He used to mop the whole ship alone. Whenever I talked to him, he was smiling. I asked him "why are we going to Cyprus?". He said "Cyprus is ours commander".Yes, Cyprus was ours, and it had a price!...4. Final notes-Questions-Results:1) When we arrived to the open shores of Girne during the morning of the invasion, it looked like the whole Cyprus was filled by Greek flags. We could only see one or two Turkish flags at the hillsides. There was no sight of the usual, laurel-leafed Cyprus flag.2) The salt of the Mediterranean made our arms wounded when we were rowing. Our shirts were affected by salt, injuring our bodies. When we took them off, sunburns were the problem causing the wounds.3)   A Soviet ship was entering our convoy, reporting it wants to help. We followed it and chased it away. We water-bombed an unknown submarine to the North of Cyprus. Later on, we were told that a Soviet submarine with a broken wing went up through the Bosphorus.4)   It is still being told that the Greek ships we were looking around to sink never existed, and it was completely wrong intelligence... Couldn't we have cross-checked the intelligence with different sources?5)   Which state forces were responsible for mixing up our wireless signals and radars connecting us to the Electronic Operation Center?6)   Why was the rescue operation so late?7)   If the passwords are not matching, couldn't we have a temporary password system which could come into effect after seeing so many Turkish flags and hearing Turkish swearwords? Why were we so late to evaluate the pilot who the M.F. Cakmak saved off shore Girne, counting his genealogy?8)   Why were the memories asked from us now delayed for so long?9)   Will we always be able to take lessons from our mistakes for success? Or will we always hide these mistakes?10) In extraordinary situations, officers who have a sense of initiative will take us to victory. Eduation, education, education...

I believe these questions have been asked many times. They have been worked on. As a nation, please let us work on these topics, and learn more.I was lucky to escape after living through these events, and to be positioned on TCG Kocatepe. I do not

regret the actions I have taken. I believe some of these events were the grace of some extraordinary forces. I always learned to say "this is good enough". I am a soldier, son of a soldier, that is probably why I did not write before I got asked. You asked and finally I shared my memories. My wishes are:May there not be similar disasters in the future like TCG Kocatepe. May we, as the Turkish nation and the Turkish Armed Forces, be victorious forever. Long live the Turkish Republic and the Turkish Armed Forces...My gratitude to our martyrs, veterans, our whole nation who served under this flag; our soldiers, to the "Mustafa Kemalalar"...