University offers scholarships to kin of foreign war veterans

Irfan Gulyen was 23 when he volunteered to fight for South Korea during the Korean War.

The Turkish soldier, who had never received any military training, arrived in Busan in 1952 and served as an artilleryman for one year.

“Grandfather told me ‘When I first arrived in Korea, I thought I would never come back to Turkey. Gunshots and bombs were everywhere,’” his grandson Turget Alp Ozel, 23, told The Korea Herald. He currently studies in Korea under a scholarship program for descendants of foreign Korean War veterans.

Monday is the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 conflict, which broke out when North Korea invaded the South and ended in a truce rather than a permanent peace treaty. During the war, 16 countries sent troops and five nations provided medical staff as part of U.N. forces in support of the South.

Turkey sent around 15,000 troops, the U.S. 1.79 million and the U.K. 56,000, according to government data.

In Busan, Gulyen met one of his childhood friends, Tyfik Arpaci, who had also enlisted in the army. Together they advanced up to Seoul, which had been taken by North Korea, but his friend was killed when U.N. troops recaptured the capital on Sept. 28. He could not eat and sleep well for several months after he came back home.

“We handed out our food to Koreans who were almost starved to death. And we fought to protect those people. We fought as if Korea is our own country,” Ozel quoted his grandfather as saying.

Almost 50 years later, Irfan was invited to visit Korea and saw the 2002 World Cup in Seoul.

“He was amazed to see how much Korea had developed from the rubble. And he was touched to see Korean and Turkish soccer players putting arms around each others’ shoulders after the game,” Ozel said.

Turgut came to Korea in 2010 and majors in international sport and leisure at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He was on Turkey’s national taekwondo team and won first place at an international championship held in Jeonju in 2009.

He said he wants to work for a Korean company in Turkey or Korea after graduation.

He is among 30 students from eight countries who study at HUFS under the program jointly run since 2010 by the university, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs and the Korean War Memorial Foundation.

“Korea is an aid recipient-turned-benefactor country. It should remember sacrifices of the foreign soldiers during the war. HUFS will make efforts in contributing more to that end,” said Jang Tae-yeop, dean of external affairs at the university.

Ceylin Sarpel, 27, also from Turkey, is learning Korean at a language program at HUFS and planning to study at a graduate school for international studies.

Her grandfather, Nuri Sarpel, was a medic. He treated wounded soldiers and also helped Koreans with food.

He sold alcohol that he received as military supplies to foreign soldiers, usually Americans, and shared the money or food he got in return with Koreans, she said.

“He talked about many casualties and wounded people during the war. And sometimes about Korean food,” she said.

“He has always wanted to visit Korea but he couldn’t because of illness. He wishes to come before it is too late.”

She hopes to work for the Turkish Embassy contributing to the relations between Korea and Turkey as her grandfather did in the past.

Bradly Scott Pocock, a 20-year-old Canadian, took time out of a business course at a university in his home country to join the international business department at HUFS later this year.

His grandfather, Kim Reynolds, now 85, fought in Korea in 1951.

“He hasn’t talked about battles or anything about the war since it brings back about bad memories. You know, war is not a fun story. He just once told me Korea was completely destructed during the war.”

However, Kim likes to talk about how Korea has developed, which makes himself and his grandson proud.

Canada sent 25,687 troops, the third-largest number among the 16 countries that dispatched combat troops. More than 300 Canadian soldiers were killed and over 1,000 were wounded.

Bradly regrets that history and his forefathers’ effort are being forgotten.

“People don’t learn about the war at all now. They are not talking about it. I hope the Canadian government does more to recognize it,” he said.

“Every year people gather on Vancouver Island to commemorate the Korean War. They look out the ocean toward Korea. They did not do that last year because so many of them have died due to old age.”

Maadin Sahleselassie, 26, is from Ethiopia, which sent more than 3,500 soldiers.

“For Ethiopians, participating in the war was a big issue, since freedom is the major priority of the nation,” he said.

His grandfather fought in the war when he was younger than Maadin is now, and died of natural causes in the 1990s.

“My grandfather was somewhere in a mountainous region in Korea with a mission for freedom almost 60 years ago. I, as a grandson of the veteran, am here in Korea with a different mission to overcome poverty” he said.

“I always keep in mind a phrase from a book that says freedom and overcoming poverty are the two faces of development. War should be avoided. War is costly and the peace achieved by it does not last long.”

The students and HUFS president Park Chul visited the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan on June 16.

In commemoration of the 62nd anniversary, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik will have lunch with the descendants of veterans at HUFS on Monday.

The university said it is going to expand the scholarship program to help more descendants of the war veterans. But it says financial assistance and other kinds of help are needed from the government and private firms.

The Aekyung Welfare Foundation donated in May 30 million won ($25,900) in scholarships for the 30 descendants at HUFS and Dongwon Group has promised to provide financial help for the scholarship program.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)