From battlefield to memorial landscape

The Dumlupınar Martyrs’ Cemetery, opened on 30 August 1992, contains 500 symbolic graves and inscriptions honouring those lost on all fronts of the Turkish War of Independence. These markers are symbolic, not actual burials. The Three Commanders Monument commemorates Atatürk, İsmet Pasha and Fevzi Çakmak; the Militia Monument represents civilians killed in the struggle, while the Mehmetçik Monument stands for soldiers. Together, the memorials name commanders, civilians and troops within one commemorative landscape.

The Great Offensive began at Kocatepe on 26 August 1922. The Battle of the Commander-in-Chief was fought at Dumlupınar on 30 August. Two days later, on 1 September, an order naming the Mediterranean as the army’s first objective gave the First Target Monument its name. Construction began in 1964, was partly completed in 1968, and the monument opened in 1972.

Kocatepe first received a monument and marble inscription in 1953. The present Atatürk Monument and its landscaping opened in 1993, adding later memorial layers to the command site. Gallipoli Historic Site marks a separate front: the 1915 Çanakkale campaign. At Eskihisarlık Point, the Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial opened in 1960, on the 45th anniversary of the Second Anafartalar Victory.

The symbolic graves at Dumlupınar, the inscription at Kocatepe and the memorial at Gallipoli give each front its own language of remembrance.