''Demolition of the

Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

at San Stefano'' (, ) is a 1914 Turkish documentary film directed by former army officer Fuat Uzkınay. It is the oldest known Turkish-made film. The subject of the documentary was the demolition of the Russian Monument at San Stefano (present-day Yeşilköy,

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

) after the

Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) was a conflict between the Ottoman Empire and a coalition led by the Russian Empire which included United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, Romania, Principality of Serbia, Serbia, and Principality of ...

, which ended with the Treaty of San Stefano (following the

Congress of Berlin At the Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878), the major European powers revised the territorial and political terms imposed by the Russian Empire on the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of San Stefano (March 1878), which had ended the Rus ...

in 1878 it was superseded by the Treaty of Berlin). The reason for the monument's demolition was the declaration of war between the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

in 1914, during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and thus the demolition of the monument was ordered by

Enver Pasha İsmâil Enver (; ; 23 November 1881 – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and Istanbul trials of 1919–1920, convicted war criminal who was a p ...

. The last surviving copy of the film is believed to have been lost around 1941 and no known copies exist today in archives. Only a number of photos of the event have survived.

External links

Ayastefanos'taki Rus Abidesinin Yıkılışı
at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

* http://www.turkeyswar.com/homefront/cinema.html * https://mubi.com/en/us/films/ayastefanos-taki-rus-abidesinin-yikilis

References

Turkish documentary films Lost Turkish films 1914 films 1914 documentary films Black-and-white documentary films Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) Turkish black-and-white films Turkish silent films Turkish propaganda films 1914 lost films Cinema of the Ottoman Empire {{1910s-documentary-film-stub