Before 2005 in Turkey, mandatory military service medical examinations were notorious for their highly uncomfortable and embarrassing procedures. Young men were often gathered at the local military recruitment office and instructed to strip down to their underwear, sometimes right in the courtyard where women, children, and anyone passing by could see them. The sight of dozens of young men standing awkwardly in their underwear in plain view of the public was a common, yet deeply humiliating, experience.
Inside the examination room, the process became even more invasive. Orders such as “Donlar dize, başlar yukarı” (“Underwear down to the knees, no higher”) were shouted, leaving the young men frozen with embarrassment as they followed the command. In some cases, they were asked to remove all their clothes completely and stand naked in front of military doctors and other staff for detailed inspections. The lack of privacy heightened the sense of shame, as the young men had no choice but to comply while trying to avoid eye contact with others.
Adding to the humiliation, the examinations were often carried out in groups, with no curtains or partitions for privacy. Some conscripts later recounted the surreal experience of standing naked in a cold, sterile room while doctors evaluated their physical fitness, often making clinical comments about their bodies. For many, these moments were burned into memory as some of the most mortifying of their lives, especially knowing that the whole process began under the watchful eyes of their local community in the recruitment office courtyard.
When I visited my grandparents in their village, I had an experience that has stayed with me vividly. Near their house was the local military recruitment office, and on a hot summer day in 1999, I noticed a scene through the open windows of the building.
Inside, the young men from the neighborhood, whom I looked up to as strong and confident role models, were standing completely naked, holding pieces of paper, waiting for their medical examinations. From where I stood, I could clearly see their bare backsides and even their privates as they shifted uncomfortably, exposed to everyone in the room and anyone who happened to glance in through the windows.
The sun was scorching, adding to the surreal atmosphere, and the lack of privacy was striking. It was both shocking and unsettling to witness these neighborhood boys, who usually carried themselves with pride and dignity, in such a vulnerable and humiliating position. I remember thinking about how embarrassing it must have been for them to stand there, stripped of all dignity, waiting for their turn under the judgmental eyes of strangers.
Years later, the same thing happened to me. During my own military medical examination, I was subjected to the same humiliating process. They made me strip completely naked not once, but three times during different stages of the examination. The sense of exposure and vulnerability was overwhelming, and the memory of being stripped of all dignity in front of strangers still lingers with me to this day. It felt as though history had repeated itself, forcing me to relive the very scene I had witnessed as a teenager.