Mehmetçik Monument
monument in Polatlı, Turkey
Mehmetçik Monument (Kartaltepe Mehmetçik Monument) is a monumental sculpture featuring a Turkish soldier on Kartaltepe of Polatlı, a rural area of Ankara Province, Turkey. The name of the monument Mehmetçik is the diminutive form of the common name Mehmet, which is used to nickname Turkish soldiers.
Location
The sculpture is situated on top of the Kartaltepe hill just 6 km (3.7 mi) west of Polatlı and 75 km (47 mi) west of Ankara at 39°34′29″N 32°03′38″E. It is to the south of the Turkish state highway D.200, which connects west Anatolia to Ankara. Turkish high speed train railway route passes through a 470 metres (1,540 ft) tunnel under Kartaltepe. Gordion the historical capital of Phrygia is about 12 km (7.5 mi) to the north.
History
The monument was sponsored by the Koç Holding and Tüpraş company. Binali Yıldırım, the Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication, Yaşar Büyükanıt, the Chief of the Turkish General Staff, the sponsor Mustafa Koç as well as a group of MPs and the mayor of Polatlı were present in the opening ceremony on 6 August 2008. It is further planned to establish a museum about the Battle of Sakarya next to the monument.
Monument
The Battle of Sakarya was one of the most important milestones in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). During the 22–day battle, the Greek army advanced as far as Kartaltepe hill.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mehmetçik Monument” is monument in Polatlı, Turkey. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mehmetçik, Monument and monument, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “monument in Polatlı, Turkey” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18127955. Authority coordinates are 39.575, 32.060. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 1919 and 1922.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mehmetçik Monument” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.