Suicide in Van rocks barracks

VAN - Doğan News Agency

A private soldier allegedly committed suicide Dec. 15 by shooting himself in the head in the southeastern province of Van’s Başkale district while conducting guard duty.

Davut Yardımcı, who is originally from the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, shot himself with a rifle and was hospitalized immediately, but doctors were unable to save his life, according to reports.

Doctors were set to perform an autopsy yesterday before Yardımcı’s body was sent back to Sanlıurfa. The local prosecutor, meanwhile, has started an investigation.

Some 46 soldiers have now committed suicide in Turkish barracks in 2012. The head of Parliament’s Human Rights Commission, Ayhan Sefer Üstün, said Nov. 25 that 175 private soldiers had taken their own lives over the last two-and-a-half years. With Yıldırım’s death, 935 have now committed suicide over the last 10 years.