Edirnekapı Martyrs’ Cemetery: Towards a Therapeutic Forgetting

Abstract

Edirnekapı Martyrs’ Cemetery (Edirnekapı Şehitliği, 1926), which is located in one of the oldest and largest cemeteries of Istanbul, contains the graves of mainly Muslim soldiers who died during the Balkan War and WWI, especially those wounded in the Çanakkale War (Gallipoli Campaign), which is considered the forerunner of the Turkish War of Independence (Kurtuluş Savaşı, 1919-1923) and one of the influential founding myths of the Turkish Republic. The soldiers who have lost their lives in the war against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) since the end of the 1980s are also buried here, creating a continuum of historical enemies. In addition, civilians killed during the 15 July coup attempt in 2016 are buried in a separate section next to the Edirnekapı Cemetery, adding another internal enemy - the Gülen Movement - to the official history. The physical correspondence of this mnemonical expansion is also visible in the expansion of the cemetery area, which has been gradually transformed into a public transportation hub since 2008. This article examines how the cemetery reproduces the myth of martyrdom and shapes the social frameworks of memory in favour of nationalism on the D-100 highway. The intersectionality of collective memory and urban infrastructure is analysed through the history and spatial formation of the cemetery, as a part of the greater mnemonic constellation on the D-100 highway.