Turkey: Back to the Army

The Turkish government last week rescinded a little law requiring internal exile for foreigners convicted of certain minor crimes. Most such exiles would have been overjoyed; not so U.S. Army Private Kenneth Baldwin, 30, whose banishment to isolated Kusadasi has turned out to be more a reward than a punishment (TIME, June 25).

Convicted of selling a PX-purchased tape recorder on the black market, Baldwin was sentenced to ten months in a Turkish prison, followed by a 21 year stretch of village life in Kusadasi. Undaunted, he set about learning Turkish and making friends, tackled the port town's problems with the energy of a squad of Peace Corpsmen. Kusadasians dubbed him Kemal, "The Perfect One."

With the repeal of the banishment law—caused in part by publicity surrounding his own case—Baldwin was forced to return to his unit in Ankara for transport back to the U.S. and a bad-conduct discharge. Kusadasians argued that Baldwin would be put to an economic hardship if he had to pay his fare from the U.S. back to Turkey, and in letters, telegrams and telephone calls to U.S. officials pleaded that he be allowed to stay. Baldwin, who had found a home in Kusadasi, enthusiastically concurred. Said he: "They never looked down on me because I was a jailbird. Instead, they have helped me, and I want to repay them by helping them."