Kilitbahir: 'Dur Yolcu' and the Fortress on the Dardanelles

One of the most familiar and most clearly visible images of Turkey is the giant “Dur Yolcu" memorial carved onto the hillside above Kilitbahir, depicting a 1915 Turkish soldier holding a rifle in one hand, while pointing towards the inscriptions in Turkish with his other hand:

                                                     'Dur yolcu!

                                                     Bilmeden gelip bastığın
                                                               Bu toprak, 

                                                      bir devrin battığı yerdir.'

These two lines are roughly translated by some as:

                                                 'Traveller halt!
                                                         The soil you tread
                                              Once witnessed the end of an era.'

This inscription is actually the first few lines of a poem by Turkish poet, Necmettin Halil Onan (1902-1968):

                                             Dur yolcu! Bilmeden gelip bastığın

                                             Bu toprak, bir devrin battığı yerdir.

                                              Eğil de kulak ver, bu sessiz yığın

                                               Bir vatan kalbinin attığı yerdir.

                                            Bu ıssız, gölgesiz yolun sonunda

                                           Gördüğün bu tümsek Anadolu'nda,

                                             İstiklal uğrunda, namus yolunda

                                          Can veren Mehmed’in yattığı yerdir.

                                          Bu tümsek, koparken büyük zelzele,

                                             Son vatan parçası geçerken ele,

                                            Mehmed’in düşmanı boğdugu sele

                                               Mübarek kanını kattığı yerdir.

                                          Düşün ki, haşrolan kan, kemik, etin

                                           Yaptığı bu tümsek, amansız, çetin

                                            Bir harbin sonunda bütün milletin

                                              Hürriyet zevkini tattığı yerdir.

                                                                               Necmettin Halil Onan (1902-1968)

Eceabat: Counting Ships on the Dardanelles

My first visit to Eceabat was in 2007, when I happened to find myself in Canakkale by coincidence, and decided to take a ferry across the Dardanelles to have a quick look at the town of Eceabat, the closest town to the battlefields of the Gallipoli Campaign. As I was in a hurry, the first visit to Eceabat lasted less than an hour, and the only impression I had of this smal seaside town is a cluster of houses centred around some kind of a small square that doubles as the town's carpark, surrounded by narrow streets and a few shops and restaurants.

During the next few years, my visit to Eceabat was limited to some brief stopovers around its harbour while on the bus from Istanbul to Izmir. It was not until the winter of 2009 that I finally had the chance to stay in this town and get to know this place better.