MARTYRS ARE NEW HEROES OF TURKEY

Most venerated is Sergeant Omer Halisdemir, who died following orders to kill key plotter

ÇUKURKUYU (Turkey)

PEOPLE come from far and wide to this sleepy Anatolian village in central Turkey to recite prayers, take selfies or to reflect quietly as they pay their respects at the grave of Sergeant Omer Halisdemir, probably the most celebrated victim of the July 15 coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The 249 people who died at the hands of the coup plotters are remembered as sehitler — martyrs for Islam — and the subject of intense veneration on the first anniversary of the failed putsch.

But none received the attention of Halisdemir, who became an immediate national hero by shooting two bullets into the head of General Semih Terzi on the night of July 15.

Terzi is suspected of being one of the key plotters who led the assault on the headquarters of special forces in Ankara.

Anti-coup special forces commander Zekai Aksakalli had ordered Halisdemir by telephone to shoot Terzi to break the chain of command. The sergeant replied simply, “Yes Sir!”.

After carrying out his commander’s instructions to the letter, Halisdemir was shot dead by Terzi’s entourage.

The ultimate sacrifice made by Halisdemir, married with two children, was hailed by Turkish leaders as the turning point of the night and turned his village into a place of pilgrimage.

Tens of thousands of people have journeyed to the cemetery here to visit Halisdemir’s grave, located at the end of an alley lined with pine trees and flanked by a gigantic Turkish flag.

“One of the greatest heroes of the night of the putsch is buried there,” said Aydin, 23, a student who had come to Halisdemir’s grave with his family.

“When he fell as a martyr, Halisdemir became the brother of 80 million Turks,” he added.

In the province of Nigde, where Cukurkuyu is located, Halisdemir’s image is omnipresent — stuck to the windows of lorries, on the local university that is now named after him, and on scarves sold in the street.

A statue of him occupies pride of place in central Nigde.

The heroes of the coup night Halisdemir have been given an importance of historical magnitude by the government. This is made clear in the large number of roads, schools and parks named after the martyrs of the putsch.

The first bridge across the Bosphorus in Istanbul is now called the Bridge of the Martyrs of July 15.

“On July 15, these people became heroes,” said Abudurrahman Tarik Sebik, president of the Foundation for the Martyrs of July 15, established after the coup.

“But what were they doing on the 14th? One was a taxi driver, another a ship captain and one was an academic.”

The cult of martyrs has aroused the greed of businessmen who have exploited their names to make a fast buck.

Halisdemir’s widow recently inscribed her husband’s name in Turkey’s patents register to protect it from misuse.

At the cemetery, gardener Ahmet Yesil, a childhood friend of Halisdemir, rummages his memory as he digs into the ground.

“Omer had the look of a soldier, he had that sharp look. He often said: ‘I am not scared of anything, just of God’.”

They met for the last time just a week before his death, during a funeral of a friend in the same cemetery.

“I liked Omer a lot,” said Yesil. “He was a normal kind of guy.” AFP