Two Turkish conscripts have died from multiple organ failure caused by excessive fluid loss during training in Turkey’s southern Hatay province, prompting public outrage and a military investigation into alleged negligence, Turkish Minute reported on Monday.
The soldiers, identified as 29-year-old Semih Erdoğan and Hayrullah Halit Karaman, were performing their compulsory military service at the İskenderun Naval Recruit Training Regiment when they fell ill on July 25. According to the initial autopsy reports, both men died from “multi-organ failure due to a dehydration-induced electrolyte imbalance.”
Turkey’s defense ministry confirmed the deaths in a statement released on Saturday, saying a total of seven soldiers had been hospitalized with high fever. Treatment reportedly began at the unit’s primary care clinic before the affected recruits were transferred to a hospital. While five soldiers remain under medical care in stable condition, Erdoğan and Karaman could not be saved.
The ministry announced that an administrative investigation is underway to determine possible failures in training conditions or medical response. Both soldiers were buried over the weekend — Erdoğan in his hometown of Giresun, and Karaman in İstanbul.
The incident has sparked calls for accountability from opposition parties. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) accused the authorities of negligence and demanded the formation of a parliamentary commission to investigate the deaths. CHP leader Özgür Özel said the deaths reflect “systemic mismanagement,” arguing that “Turkey has become a country of preventable deaths,” and warned against further erosion of trust in the Turkish Armed Forces.
Referring to a separate incident earlier in July in which 12 Turkish soldiers died of methane gas exposure in a cave in northern Iraq, Özel called for full transparency and accountability for both tragedies.
CHP parliamentary group leader and physician Murat Emir said, “We are no longer losing our children on the front lines, but in the barracks due to negligence.”
The Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) echoed the criticism, with spokesperson Sera Kadıgil questioning how soldiers could die from dehydration during training. “What kind of system allows someone under the care of the state to die from ‘organ failure due to fluid loss’?” she asked, labeling the deaths as “negligence-induced homicide.”
İYİ (Good) Party lawmaker and surgeon Turhan Çömez also demanded answers from the defense ministry, saying it was medically unacceptable for healthy young men to die from dehydration. “If they were training in extreme heat, they should have been provided with adequate hydration. Why weren’t they?” he asked.
The conscripts’ roommates reportedly told the Cumhuriyet newspaper that they had been drilling for days in intense heat in preparation for a scheduled oath-taking ceremony. Following news of the deaths, some recruits chose to sleep in the infirmary out of fear for their health.
Dehydration, especially in extreme conditions, can lead to confusion, elevated heart rate and eventually organ failure if left untreated. The incident has raised broader concerns about military training standards in Turkey’s summer heat, particularly in southern provinces like Hatay, where temperatures often exceed 40°C (104°F).