Anticipating Martyrs

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 1 November 2018)


          Hopefully, it will stay empty.

In Köse district of Gümüşhane province, the AKP (ruling
party) mayor has created a controversy by building a
cemetery for 'martyrs' (fallen soldiers) before there are any.
Saying that "Probably, the martyrs will come." (!), Mayor
Şerif Aygün has had the 1-acre plot prepared to accept 12
'martyrs' at a cost of 200,000 TL (about $40,000).

Up to now, the district has had 7 'martyrs' and 6 of them
are buried in the district cemetery.  The other is buried
outside of the district.  Mayor Aygün explained to
Sözcü that "Martyrs may come so that's why we've done
this.  We have room for 12 martyrs.  God willing, there
won't be any but we have prepared this place in case
there are."

Aygün added that "We've put the photos of the district's
previous seven martyrs here.  Some people said we
should have made a 250-capacity martyrs cemetery but
this isn't Çanakkale.  Our opponents are exaggerating
about this, thinking it's too big.  We've also built a
memorial here and we didn't spend too much money.
Just around 200,000 TL."