The Monument of Sivrihisar Airplane () is a monument featuring a biplane replica in

Sivrihisar Sivrihisar is a municipality and district of Eskişehir Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,748 km2, and its population is 20,087 (2022). Its elevation is . Location The town of Sivrihisar lies north of the historical site of Pessinus, at the f ...

district of

Eskişehir Province Eskişehir Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in northwestern Turkey. Its area is 13,960 km2, and its population is 906,617 (2022). Its adjacent provinces are B ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, to commemorate the purchase of a military aircraft by the citizens of Sivrihisar, and its donation to the Turkish military during the Turkish War of Independence.

Geography

The replica has been installed to the south of Turkish state highway at a point, which is close to the junction of two busy state roads to

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. Its distance to the town center is about .

History

During the

Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...

, Sivrihisar was captured by the advancing Greek forces on 12 August 1921. The town later was recaptured on 20 September 1921 during the

Battle of Sakarya The Battle of the Sakarya (), also known as the Battle of the Sangarios (), was an important engagement in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). The battle went on for 21 days from August 23 to September 13, 1921, close to the banks of the Sakar ...

. During the war, Turkish army had only five warplanes, which were old and not maintained. The military badly needed a new airplane. After the Turkish control was reestablished, the citizens of Sivrihisar decided to buy a new airplane to show their gratitude to the army and after a fund drive they collected TL 4,000. With this money, they bought a single-engine two-seat biplane bomber aircraft of type Breguet 14 B.2 from

Breguet Aviation The ''Société anonyme des ateliers d'aviation Louis Breguet'' (), also known as Breguet Aviation (), was a French aircraft manufacturer. The company was set up in 1911 by the aviation pioneer Louis Charles Breguet. Breguet Aviation was extreme ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The plane was named after the place of the donors, "Sivrihisar". This was one of the first up-to-date warplanes of the

Turkish Air Force The Turkish Air Force () is the Air force, air and space force of the Turkish Armed Forces. It traces its origins to 1 June 1911 when it was founded as the Ottoman Aviation Squadrons, Aviation Squadrons by the Ottoman Empire. It was composed ...

. In Atatürk’s journal of the war, there is a note "a check from Sivrihisar to Osmanlı Bankası to buy a new airplane is entrusted to Eskişehir MP Mehmet Efendi". Also Semyon Aralov, then the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

representative in Turkey notes that an airplane donated by the Sivrihisar citizens was flying over Sivrihisar during his visit there on 27 March 1922. Piloted by Halim Canko, the warplane carried out the roles of

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

, fighter and

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

aircraft.

Commemoration

After the research of the historian Tahsin Özalp in collaboration with Turgut Özakman, it was decided to commemorate the event, and the aircraft replica was produced at the

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a prestigious public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, ...

. The monument was opened on 22 September 2007.

References

{{Eskişehir Province Monuments and memorials in Turkey Buildings and structures in Eskişehir Province Tourist attractions in Eskişehir Province Sivrihisar District History of the Turkish Air Force Turkish War of Independence 2007 establishments in Turkey Replica aircraft