Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery

Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery

Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery
Details
Year established	1453 (?)
Location	Edirnekapı, Istanbul
Country	Turkey
Coordinates	41°02′1.68″N 28°55′58.80″E Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery (Istanbul)
Owned by	Türk Şehitlikleri İmar Vakfı
Website	Türk Şehitlikleri İmar Vakfı website

The Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery (Turkish: Edirnekapı Şehitliği) is a burial ground located in the neighborhood of Edirnekapı, in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. It consists of an old, historical part and a modern one.

The cemetery is said originally to have been formed with the graves of the Ottoman soldiers, who fell in the battle during the Second Ottoman Siege and Fall of Constantinople in 1453, where the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI established his command and the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II made his triumphal entry into the conquered city. There is however no historical or archaeological evidence for this, the oldest known graves date from ca. 1600 AD. The cemetery is situated outside Edirnekapı (literally: Adrianople Gate), historically the Gate of Charisius of the city walls, on top of the sixth hill of the old city.

The old part of the cemetery, including an area called "Mısır Tarlası" (literally: Corn Field), hosts graves of personalities from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. The other part of the cemetery consists of two grounds, Edirnekapı Cemetery and Sakızağacı Cemetery. Soldiers, who fought and were wounded in the Russo-Turkish Wars, Balkan Wars and the World War I, and died in Istanbul after hospitalization, were interred in Edirnekapı Cemetery. The General Command of Mapping denotes the number of such historical graves with around 13,000.

Military personnel of the Turkish Army, Navy and Air Force, personnel of the police force, firefighters and Turkish Airlines have all separate departments in the cemetery.

Notable burials

In the old part:

• Bâkî (d. 1600), poet
• Buhurizade Itri (d. 1711), composer

In the new part:

• Süleyman Nazif (1870-1927), poet
• Yusuf Akçura (1876-1935), Pan-Turkist activist
• Ahmed Tevfik Pasha (1845-1936), Grand Vizier
• Leyla Saz (1850-1936), female composer
• Mehmet Akif Ersoy (1873-1936), poet
• Bruno Taut (1880-1938), Jewish German architect (the only non-Muslim)
• Vedat Tek (1873-1942), architect
• Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu (1878-1945), journalist
• Recep Peker (1889-1950), prime minister
• Cengiz Topel (1934-1964), fighter pilot
• Suat Hayri Ürgüplü (1903-1981), prime minister
• Ruhi Sarıalp (1924-2001), Olympic medalist track and field athlete

References

This article incorporates information from the revision as of November 9, 2008 of the equivalent article on the Turkish Wikipedia.

• Hans-Peter Laqueur, Osmanische Friedhöfe und Grabsteine in Istanbul (=Istanbuler Mitteilungen, Beiheft 38) Tübingen (Ernst Wasmuth Verlag) 1993, pp. 19-25