Turkish soldiers at the barracks in the western Manisa province were hospitalised for food poisoning on two successive days. While the number of soldiers food poisoned on Saturday were 69, the number rose to 731 on Sunday. Some of the soldiers are reported to be in critical condition. It was also reported that a field tent had been set up at the barracks giving health service.
The soldiers ate a meal of soup, rice, chicken and yoghurt but hundreds were then rushed to hospital with stomach pains and dizziness. There have been four cases of food poisoning at the barracks in Manisa, affecting more than 1,000 soldiers and killing one in May.
"We don't see a significant problem, just some of our soldiers are being kept in for observation. "No one is in intensive care or has their life in danger," Defence Minister Fikri Işık said.
'AUTHORITIES TRIED TO COVER UP THE INCIDENT'
Tur Yıldız Biçer, an MP of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said that the soldiers were poisoned with spoiled meat, adding that the number of poisoned soldiers could have been higher if the soldiers did not throw away the dish because of its nasty smell.
Biçer noted that the authorities at the barracks tried to cover up the incident by not calling ambulances and trying to hospitalise the soldiers with military buses. She argued that the actual number of poisoned soldiers could be around three thousand.
SPOILED FOOD FOR THE SOLDIERS; CANNED FOOD FOR THE COMMANDERS
The soldiers protested the mass food poisoning at their camp, local media reported. One of the poisoned soldiers reacted "They serve us spoiled food. We leave our hometowns to serve here and our mothers are crying there. They will beat us when we get back to our camp."
As the hospitalised soldiers protested the incident, they gave an important information about the catering service at the barracks. One of the soldiers said that while the commanders are served canned food, the share of the soldiers is spoiled food.
THE CONTRACT WITH THE PRO-GOVERNMENT CATERING COMPANY 'ROTA' CANCELLED
The prosecutor in charge stated on Sunday that 21 people from the catering company were detained.
After the food poisoning scandal had received wide criticism, the Commander of the Turkish Land Forces announced that the contract with the catering company ROTA was cancelled.
There had been another case of food poisoning at the same military barracks in last May, affecting around a thousand soldiers and killing one. It was the same catering company that provided the food.
Tur Yıldız Biçer said that they had submitted a parliamentary question about the catering company after the incident in May and yet the ruling AKP party and the opposition party Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) declined it.
Biçer also added that the catering company ROTA had other scandalous incidents with the Ministry of Finance in the past which resulted in the cancellation of their contracts with the ministry.
ROTA, the catering company in question, had won several tenders and providing food to 12 military bases in Turkey. Veysi Avşar, one of the owners of the company, is publicly known with his free of charge food service for 4 thousand 500 people after the pro-government people were called on the street for 'democracy vigil' by the ruling AKP government following the July 15 coup attempt. Avşar had said that ROTA catering company was willing to serve the people as a defender of democracy.
