The Baku Turkish Martyrs' Memorial ( az, Bakı Türk Şəhidliyi, tr, Bakü Türk Şehitleri Anıtı) is a memorial dedicated to the Ottoman soldiers killed during the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. It is situated within the

Martyrs' Lane Martyrs' Lane or Alley of Martyrs ( az, Şəhidlər Xiyabanı), formerly known as the Kirov Park, is a cemetery and memorial in Baku, Azerbaijan dedicated to those killed by the Soviet Army during Black January 1990 and in the First Nagorno-Karaba ...

( az, Şəhidlər Xiyabanı) in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

. It consists of a monument, an alley with name plates of the martyrs and a mosque. 1,130 Turkish soldiers and officers of the Army of Islam were killed in action in the

Battle of Baku The Battle of Baku ( az, Bakı döyüşü, tr, Bakü Muharebesi, russian: Битва за Баку) was a battle in World War I that took place between August–September 1918 between the Ottoman– Azerbaijani coalition forces led by Nuri Pas ...

Caucasus Campaign The Caucasus campaign comprised armed conflicts between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, later including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, the German Empire, the Central Caspian Dicta ...

, who fought alongside the Azerbaijani forces against the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

s– Armenian Dashnaks and

Baku Soviet Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

s in 1918. The monument was designed by Turkish architects Hüseyin Bütüner and Hilmi Güner in the form of a two-story

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

frustum In geometry, a (from the Latin for "morsel"; plural: ''frusta'' or ''frustums'') is the portion of a solid (normally a pyramid or a cone) that lies between two parallel planes cutting this solid. In the case of a pyramid, the base faces are p ...

with square bases, of which truncated corners are carved out so that it appears as a sort of

octagonal In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

frustum. It is covered by red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

having star and crescent figures made of pure white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

on each of the four main faces that resembles the Turkish national flag. On one side, an inscription is carved underneath the star and crescent figure. On the flagpoles behind the monument, flags of Turkey and Azerbaijan wave. On the surrounding walls of the alley to the monument, the names of the martyrs with their military rank, hometown and death place are displayed side by side. A mosque, built by the Turkish

Presidency of Religious Affairs The Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey ( tr, Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, normally referred to simply as the Diyanet) is an official state institution established in 1924 by the orders of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk under article 136 of t ...

and opened on June 28, 1996, is situated next to the monument. The inauguration of the monument took place in presence of Turkish President

Süleyman Demirel Süleyman Sami Demirel (; 1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the List of Presidents of Turkey, 9th President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously served as the ...

and Azerbaijani President

Heydar Aliyev Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev ( az, Һејдәр Әлирза оғлу Әлијев, italic=no, Heydər Əlirza oğlu Əliyev, ; , ; 10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was a Soviet and Azerbaijani politician who served as the third president of Aze ...

with a prestigious ceremony on September 15, 1999. Mosque of the Martyrs in Baku

A fountain in the mosque yard was demolished by the governor of Baku following tensions in the

Azerbaijan–Turkey relations Relations have always been strong between Azerbaijan and Turkey, and are often described as "one nation, two states", tr, Bir millet, iki devlet by the ex-president of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev due to both being Turkic countries. Turkey was one ...

in 2001. In April 2009, the mosque was closed down by Azerbaijani authorities, and it is still out of use even though

Mehmet Görmez Mehmet Görmez (born 1959) is the former President of the Presidency of Religious Affairs ( tr, Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı from November 2010 to 31 July 2017, commonly known as ''Diyanet'') and as such legally the highest level Islamic scho ...

, president of the Turkish Religious Affairs, was permitted to pray in the mosque during his visit to Baku in December 2012.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Baku 1999 establishments in Azerbaijan Cultural infrastructure completed in 1999 Turkish military memorials and cemeteries outside Turkey

See also

References