Turkey's last World War I veteran dies

liverpool annie · Dec 24, 2008

This is'nt up to date news but thought you maybe interested !!

Friday, April 4, 2008

ANKARA - AFP

Turkey's last World War I veteran dies

Turkey's last surviving World War I veteran, who fought the British at Basra more than 90 years ago, has died aged 110, press reports said yesterday.

Yakup Satar, father of six and grandfather of some 50 grandchildren, died late Wednesday surrounded by his family in the town of Eskişehir, northwest of Ankara.

The newspaper Hürriyet newspaper said Satar had been conscripted into the Ottoman army, allied to Germany during the 1914-18 war, and was sent to the Mesopotamian front.

As an infantryman, he fought British-led forces at Basra, now in southern Iraq and still a hotspot, and was taken prisoner at Kut in 1917.

His father Zeki Bey, was a Crimean Tatar leader who fought for independence from Tsarist Russia.

After his basic military training, German officers selected him with 200 other recruits for a further special army course.

Yakup Satar told Hürriyet in 2003: "We had special uniforms and the Germans provided us with masks ... we found out later our company was to be called 'gazcilar' --- the 'gas soldiers' -- chosen to attack the enemy with gas."

Satar was also the last surviving veteran of the 1919-1923 liberation war waged by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern-day Turkey, against invading Greek forces.

Top-level public figures, led by President Abdullah Gül, published messages of condolence on his death.

He will receive military honors at his funeral, Anatolia news agency said.

Satar's death means that only eight men who served in their countries' armed forces during World War I are known to be still alive around the world.

They include three from Britain, two from Italy, one from the United States, one from Canada and one from Germany who fought in the Austro-Hungarian army
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http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=100813

http://fotogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/galeridetay.aspx?cid=9905&p=1&rid=2

His mortal body was laid in his eternal resting place by a military ceremoney. Finance Minister Mr. Unakitan, who is a Tatar also, a MP of Eskisehir took part in the ceremony representing the Turkish Government. The ceremony coused a hell in Turkey in the last 3 days. The newspapers, intellectuals and the universsity protested the government and State President Mr. Abdullah Gul not taking part in the burial ceremony. They exampled the burial ceremony of a French Legionar who died also a few weeks ago. During that ceremony Mr. Sarkosy and 2 former Presidents of France took part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l45JFCNt74

Yakup Satar was a Tartar Turk born in 1893 at Crimea. His father Zeki Bey was one of the Tartar leaders who fought for independence againts Russians. As a result of their defeat they had to refuge to homeland Ottoman Turkey.

Yakup enlisted the Turkish army in 1915. After his training in Istanbul, he was chosen as one of the 200 soldiers by some German Officers and was taken to another training camp outside Istanbul. Yakup Satar, 110 years old, told his story to Ersin Kalkan, a journalist from the Turkish newspaper “Hürriyet” on October 20th 2003. “We had special German made uniforms. They gave us masks. We usually joked among us while we are wearing masks on our faces.We had some tupes without powder which we had to carry on our back. Later we learned that our company was called “gazcilar”, the gasmen. Germans ordered us throwing gas to the enemy instead of bullets. They also warned us for keeping our mouths closed. Even, we should not have sent letters to our families about our training.”

After training, 50 of them including Yakup Satar was sent to Baghdad front by train in a special wagon concentrated from other military troops. He was not informed about the rest’s address. He goes on telling “After a long journey we arrived Baghdad. We were staying in tents, in desert. We waited nearly for a month for the equipment. We were not allowed to talk with the other soldiers. 6 months later, we got orders from Istanbul: Our troop was prohibited to use poisonous gas. At the same time British troops were advancing to Basra. Thus, our troops colluded and I was missioned in an MG company.”

Infantry soldier Yakup Satar was taken prisioner by the British forces during the battles in Iraq. After his release he joined the national forces of Mustafa Kemal during the War of Independence (1919-22). He retired from the army as master sargeant.
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