Martyrdom Found In Çanakkale After 108 Years
It has been 108 years since the Gallipoli Wars, but traces of the war continue to surface. During the scanning of the war reports of the 28th Regiment serving in the region, a sketch was detected. Skulls and bone fragments belonging to many martyrs were found at the location.
Although 108 years have passed since the Gallipoli Wars, traces of the war are coming to light.
Ataturk and Çanakkale Wars Research Center (AÇASAM) Director Dr. Faculty Member Barış Borlat and Military History Specialist Ömer Arslan examined 1000 archive documents during their master’s thesis studies.
As a result of the studies, the lost martyrdom of the soldiers who were martyred during the bayonet charge in Conkbayırı, one of the most critical areas of the Çanakkale Wars, was found.
Stating that the most important source for finding the martyrdoms in the area where the Çanakkale Wars took place is the Şevki Pasha map, Dr. Faculty Member Barış Borlat said the following:
“Şevki Pasha, who came to the region in 1916, transformed the Çanakkale Battlefield into a map for the purpose of fortification, and one of the important sections in 43 maps was the martyrdom areas. However, after a while, our studies in the military archive showed us the following. We realized that only the martyrdom areas in the map of Şevki Pasha were not sufficient or that some of them were not included. During the studies we conducted for this purpose, we realized that the martyrdom areas existed independently of the Şevki Pasha map, especially in military documents and sketches of the period.
In this context, during the studies we have carried out, we started to identify many martyrdom areas in the battlefield that we did not know the location of until today. The most recent study we have done is actually a martyrdom area that we realized during a master’s thesis, based on a military sketch, and we can say that it is a martyrdom area that none of us have actually known the location of until today, and hundreds of visits have passed in front of it almost every day.”
We Had No Martyrdom For The Battle Of Conkbayiri
Stating that there are also foreign cemeteries in the Conkbayırı region, Dr. Borlat said, “However, we did not have any martyrdom belonging to the Battle of Conkbayırı on August 10, which took place in this area, at least until the study we conducted during our master’s thesis. As August 10 is one of the most important moments in history, we can say that the martyrdom area, which was noticed during this study, which we at least learned about, constitutes an important area that we did not know the location of until today, but we learned about it today. We can now add with peace of mind that the martyrs and burial sites of the Battle of Conkbayırı have also reached the present day and are now waiting to be restored from now on.”
“We Have Also Made An Application To The Presidency Of The Historic Site”
Stating that they identified a sketch while scanning the war reports of the 28th Regiment that served in the region, Arslan said: “This sketch showed the place where the 28th Regiment was martyred and a martyrdom was organized here. The sketch reads ’28th Regiment Meşhedi’. When we superimposed this on today’s aerial image, we identified the exact location. Then we conducted a land survey together with our teacher Barış. We saw skulls, bone fragments, piles of stones in the form of a cemetery and witnesses belonging to many of our martyrs. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that this place is a martyrdom. At the same time, we notified this determination with an application to the Çanakkale Wars Gallipoli Historical Site Presidency. They will also evaluate this and carry out the registration and restoration works as a martyrdom, ` he said.
