Turkish private commits suicide in southeastern province

SIIRT – Doğan News Agency

Gendarmerie private Maşallah T. committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in Turkey’s southeastern province of Siirt on Aug. 26.

Maşallah T., who was performing his military service in Siirt’s Baykan District Gendarmerie Command, shot himself in the head at around 4:00 p.m. yesterday while he was keeping guard.

The private lost his life despite being immediately hospitalized.

Maşallah T.’s body will be sent to his hometown of Van’s Muradiye district for burial after an autopsy is conducted at the Siirt State Hospital.

Last week, Turkish Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz had said in a written statement on Aug. 23 that 108 soldiers had committed suicide and 58 had been killed in various accidents across the country between Jan. 1, 2012, and July 15, 2013, while 934 soldiers committed suicide in the past ten years. The report meant an average of one suicide has been committed every five days in the last one and a half years.

Yılmaz said that among the 58 killed, 40 soldiers were killed in weapon accidents, one soldier was killed in an occupational accident and 17 others died in accidents such as poisoning, drowning, fighting or falling.