Korea Pays Debt to Turkish Veteran
On Wednesday morning, a robust, 170 cm-tall elderly man walked into the Korea Veterans Hospital. The name tag hanging around his neck read “Abdulkadir Tavsan” and showed a Turkish flag. After exchanging hellos with a doctor, Tavsan (80) sat on the cot and rolled up his trousers to reveal an artificial left leg. Bending and stretching the leg a few times, he smiled, saying, “It’s comfortable. Thank you.”
Tavsan lost his left leg in the Korean War and has relied on an artificial limb ever since. When he revisited Korea for the first time in 55 years at the invitation of the Korea Disabled Veterans Organizations in September last year, the officials of the organization felt Tavsan walked in a peculiar way. “We first thought it was his shoes, a very old pair of shoes. But later we were shocked to discover he was still walking on a wooden leg made in an American Army hospital during the Korean War,” said Song Dong-jeong, an official of the veterans’ organization.
Turkish Korean War veteran Abdulkadir Tavsan tries on an artificial leg presented by the Korea Disabled Veterans Organization at the Korea Veterans Hospital in Seoul on Tuesday. /Courtesy of Korea Disabled Veterans Organization
Tavsan said a new leg, made with the latest technology in advanced countries like Germany, was so expensive that he did not even dare to think about getting one. But the Korea Disabled Veterans Organization immediately bought him a new prosthesis worth W6 million (US$1=W1,189). Kang Dal-sin, the president of the organization said, “Since Tavsan lost one of his legs while fighting for our country, we thought we should give it back to him.”
Tavsan came to Korea again this year to get a follow-up medical examination. “I feel so comfortable and happy with it because it’s a gift from the country I served to protect. Now the country has made remarkable progress from utter ruins and gave me this.”
Tavsan became a second lieutenant in the 84 Infantry Regiment of Turkey on Oct. 22, 1951, arrived in Busan on Nov. 20, and was dispatched to a machine gun squad based in Suwon. While fighting Chinese soldiers in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, on May 15, 1952, he stepped on a mine and lost his leg. He was transferred to Washington D.C. for treatment, and returned to his hometown with the wooden leg he used for more than half a century.
“I am all prepared to give my right leg to Korea if there is another war in the country. Korea is not just a country where I fought as a soldier, but a second home that gave me wonderful memories,” Tavsan said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )