The Epic of Sarıkamış Written in the Cold is the Story of Love for the Homeland

The Epic of Sarıkamış Written in the Cold is the Story of Love for the Homeland

Year 1914… Location Sarıkamış…

We had 60 thousand martyrs, 78 thousand of which were frozen in Sarıkamış.

Between 1914 and 15 December 22, 60 thousand soldiers froze to death in the Allahuekber Mountains near Sarıkamış to take back Kars from the Russians.

Enver Pasha, the deputy commander-in-chief, had aimed to hit the Russians from a place they never expected, from Allahuekber mountains and to bring Kars back to the homeland.

The temperature dropped to 2 degrees below zero in the passages of the Allahuekber Mountains at an altitude of 3-30 thousand altitudes. Most of the Turkish soldiers came from the desert and wore summer uniforms.

Staff Officer Şerif Bey describes the situation of our soldiers in the freezing cold in Sarıkamış in his book called “Sarıkamış”:

“A soldier crouching in the snow by the roadside, embracing a pile of snow with his arms, was gnawing with his teeth, trembling, wailing. I wanted to lift and send it to the road. He never saw me. the poor freaked out. Thus, among those cursed glaciers, we left perhaps more than ten thousand people under the snow in one day and passed ”.
Duke Alexandrovich Pietrovic, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Caucasian Army, described what he saw in Sarıkamış as follows:

“9 heroes kneeling in the first row. They took aim with their mausoleums, they were about to hang on the trigger, but could not be hanged… In the second row, there are those carrying ammunition, they took a handful of chests that seem to want to take their ambitions from the universe. They are so rigid… And at the right, Major Nihat. Standing tall, his head open, his hair dyed white, eyes opposite… I could not surrender the last Turkish detachment in the Allahuekber Mountains. They had surrendered to their God long before us. "

Allahuekber mountains were surpassed with 37 thousand martyrs and Sarıkamış was besieged. The siege operation of Sarıkamış ended on January 5, 1915, due to extreme cold and hunger, before the target could be captured.

The Ottoman Army lost 60 thousand martyrs in these mountains, 78 thousand of whom were frozen. Russian troops also lost 32 thousand soldiers in these battles.

Although 106 years have passed, we commemorate our Heroes who were martyred in the Sarıkamış Allahuekber Mountains with mercy and gratitude.

Rest in peace.