Last Turkish WWI Veteran Dies
The last Turkish veteran of the first World War, Yakup Satar, has died. He was 110 years old. Dr. e. was kind enough to send me the link to the post she wrote about him. In the post, she shares some information about who Yakup Bey was, how he joined the army in World War I, and what he did afterwards. It is a good read, and a great find, for all those interested in World War I and World War II, and especially for Turkish readers of this blog.
Yakup Satar was of an outlying Tartar tribe, born in Crimea. As a young man, he had a leaning toward allegiance to Turkey. His people were fierce: his father, a Tartar chieftain, had fought for independence from Russia/
Yakup was a boy of 17 when he went into WWI against the British in the Mesopotamian campaign.
Yakup was 19 when he was captured by the British in February 1917, as the British and Indian army drove the Ottoman Empire’s forces back up the Tigris from Basra towards Baghdad.
Released after WWI, fighting and allegiance to freedom seemed his greatest reason, and he re-upped in the Turkish War of Independence, and next, the Greco-Turkish War.
It’s a great loss for the world, and for Turkey. Sadly, all the veterans of past wars will, in the end, die. Yet, it is up to us to keep their stories alive, and to learn from what happened to them and why it happened.
A commenter at TMV points out that we in the West often spend time and attention to Western veterans, or, better, allied veterans, but we seldom think about the fact that the other side had people - normal people - fighting for it as well. Although that is all quite logical, I think it is useful for us to also take the veterans of ‘the other side’ into account (to me there is not ‘an other side’ in this debate, since the Netherlands was neutral during World War I). They too fought for their country.
Sleep well Yakup Baba, I promise we wont shrink from our share of responsibilities to deserve what you and your countrymen have sacrificed for us with your blood and sweat. Rest with comfort as we are very well aware of the threats today particularly from within, the very fundamentalist religious agenda that deliberately aims to destroy hard achieved gainings of the Kemalist republic over backwardness, anti-secularism and ignorance.
A truly great loss of a true patriot. What he fought for and built with our grandparents, we will keep and maintain.
Some have not learned from the destruction European meddling in Anatolia’s affairs wrought on the Turks during and after WWI, but others have.
May Yakup baba rest in peace with all of the others who fought bravely for so long and so hard for our freedom and independence. May all of them rest knowing we value and will protect the gifts they bestowed upon us, their children.
God bless you, Yakup Satar. May you rest in peace until the day we are all resurrected again. You fought for your freedom and your beliefs, for Turkey and Islam.
It is unfortunate that you had lived long enough to see your grand nation to turn into a wretched country where nobody can practice the things you spilled your blood for. But rest assured, so to speak, that Islam is rising again and your efforts will not die in vain.
It is worth noting that the only post here that insults and calls wretched the country people that Yakup dede and others fought for and formed is a fundie-jihadi.