As NATO leaders arrive in Ankara for next week’s summit, much of the discussion will focus on deterrence, alliance solidarity and the future of collective defence. Yet the alliance’s history contains a remarkable Turkish chapter that has remained largely hidden for more than seventy years.
When Türkiye sent thousands of troops to fight under the United Nations flag in Korea in 1950, the decision dramatically strengthened its bid for NATO membership, which was secured in 1952. What has remained almost entirely unknown, however, is that the conduct of just 244 captured Turkish soldiers would go on to influence American military doctrine for generations.
Declassified US intelligence records, uncovered by military anthropologist Dr Ece Aynur Onur, reveal that the Pentagon fundamentally reassessed its approach to captivity after studying how Turkish prisoners resisted communist interrogators, maintained discipline under extreme conditions and, remarkably, suffered no deaths inside permanent prisoner-of-war camps.
Among the most revealing documents are the secret interrogation records of Captain Ihsan Serim, one of the two highest-ranking Turkish officers captured during the Korean War. Classified by the US military in 1955 and deposited in the US National Archives, the files remained inaccessible for decades before being declassified following Onur’s request in 2017.
Together, they tell a story that extends far beyond battlefield heroism.
The birth of the “Silent Turk”
Türkiye decided to join the Korean War in the summer of 1950 and deployed thousands of soldiers as part of the international mission.
China’s decision to send hundreds of thousands of soldiers across the Yalu River on border with North Korea had strengthened Pyongyang’s hand. Soldiers from different countries were taken as prisoners of war after close encounter battles.
The newly opened records describe an extraordinary campaign of psychological resistance inside Chinese and North Korean prisoner-of-war camps.
Rather than relying on physical force, Turkish prisoners turned silence itself into a weapon.
“The core doctrine of the Turkish POWs was absolute silence and the preservation of national secrets,” Onur explained. “Their interrogators eventually came to call them the ‘Silent Turk’.”
Chinese interrogators, led by an officer identified in the files as Malik, repeatedly attempted to extract military intelligence concerning Turkish force structures and battlefield tactics.
Instead, they encountered a remarkably coordinated resistance.
Captured officers deliberately concealed their identities, pretended to possess little military knowledge, supplied carefully constructed false information and even exploited language barriers to frustrate questioning.
Captain Hamit Yuksel, a Turkish officer in captivity, convinced his captors that he was an ageing, incompetent infantry officer who knew virtually nothing of military operations. Every day he withstood lengthy interrogations using fabricated but internally consistent answers, ensuring that none of his invented stories contradicted previous statements.
Captain Ihsan Serim adopted an even more uncompromising stance.
Mistaken repeatedly for an American pilot because of his blonde hair and green eyes, he endured repeated beatings but refused to answer interrogation questions, insisting that no threat could persuade him to betray his country.
Captain Ihsan Serim’s remarkable deception
The interrogation files provide the first detailed account of Captain Serim’s extraordinary resistance.
Serim was captured near the Imjin River on April 23, 1951. He was forced into a death march alongside 200 captive UN soldiers. The march was brutal, requiring prisoners to walk for twelve to fourteen hours every night with virtually no rest.
Following his capture, Serim was transferred to Camp 2 near Pyoktong, where Turkish, British and American officers were held together.
Despite the camp’s extensive surveillance network, he attempted to escape on Christmas Eve 1952. Although recaptured, he demonstrated a willingness to risk almost certain death rather than remain passive.
His punishment was severe.
He spent ten days in harsh solitary confinement before being subjected to months of intensive questioning about the Turkish Armed Forces, the country’s defence organisation and the curriculum of the Turkish War Academies.
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During one particularly intense interrogation in March 1952, he faced both a Chinese lieutenant colonel and a Russian interpreter fluent in Turkish.
According to Dr Onur, Serim responded bluntly that they could execute him if they wished, but that he would never compromise his country or reveal military secrets.
The pressure put on Serim eventually resulted in debilitating migraine attacks.
At one point, convinced he was about to be executed after refusing to cooperate, Serim was taken unconscious into surgery by Chinese doctors. He later awoke with a deep incision above his left eyebrow. Although the precise purpose of the operation remains unclear, his chronic headaches mysteriously disappeared afterwards.
Even then, the interrogations continued.
Rather than break under pressure, Serim adopted a different tactic. He began submitting entirely fictional written statements, carefully designed to mislead Chinese intelligence officers while buying himself valuable time.
“Having successfully protected his military secrets through wit and resilience, he was ultimately transferred back to the general population,” Onur said.
The spirit that refused to collapse
The files also overturn long-standing assumptions about why Turkish prisoners proved so resilient.
For decades, some American scholars suggested that Turkish POWs performed exceptionally because they represented an elite volunteer force.
The declassified records show precisely the opposite.
According to Onur’s research, 96 percent of the 244 Turkish prisoners were ordinary conscripts performing compulsory military service.
“Their resilience was rooted in cultural cohesion and discipline rather than specialised elite training,” Onur said.
The records demonstrate that the Turkish prisoners recreated military hierarchy inside the camps regardless of communist attempts to dismantle it.
Whenever officers were removed for interrogation, another officer— or, if necessary, the most experienced enlisted soldier— immediately assumed command.
Food was distributed equally.
The wounded received priority.
Healthy prisoners accompanied sick comrades to medical facilities to ensure they received proper care.
Internal discipline remained strict.
According to American investigators, Turkish soldiers cared for their wounded “like babies”, preventing the psychological collapse that devastated many other prisoner groups.
