Mesudiye Village

War Veterans

Nine documented veterans across four wars: the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War, World War I (Yemen, Iraq, Gallipoli fronts), the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1922), and the Korean War (1950-1953). Galip Ay was a British POW for seven years; Ömer Özşahines was held in Korea for approximately three years among 234 captured from a force of 21,000.

The Nine Veterans

İbrahim Ay

b. 1879 — d. Nisan 1942

Iraq front (Baghdad–Basra line), against the British

Galip Ay

b. 1896 — d. 14 Şubat 1967

Yemen & Iraq fronts (WWI), Afyon front (War of Independence)

Abdullah Akan

b. 1896 — d. 3 Temmuz 1969

Yemen front, against the British

İdris Bayraktar

b. 1887

World War I

İsmail Bayraktar

d. 1959

World War I — medical corps (sıhhiye)

Mehmet Cankara

b. 1878 — d. 25 Haziran 1952

1897 Ottoman–Greek War, as cavalry

Eşref Cıvataş

d. 1963

War of Independence, cavalry unit

İsmail Gezici

b. 1894 — d. 20 Mart 1966

War of Independence — Kütahya–Dumlupınar front against the Greeks

Ömer Özşahines

b. 15 Şubat 1929 — d. 25 Şubat 2003

Korean War (1950–1953)

Featured stories

Galip Ay (1896-1967) fought across three fronts in World War I — Yemen, Iraq, and later the Afyon front of the Turkish War of Independence. Captured by British forces in Iraq, he spent seven years in captivity. The story of his unrecognised return — when his father Mutallip failed to recognise him in a Karaman inn after long captivity — is one of the village's defining oral histories.

Ömer Özşahines (1929-2003) was a Korean War veteran who became one of only 234 prisoners held from a Turkish brigade of approximately 21,000. He spent roughly three years in captivity in Korea.

Mehmet Cankara (1878-1952) is the village's earliest documented soldier, having served as cavalry in the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War — fought when his ancestors were still in Rumelia before the 1907 migration.

See also: Mesudiye overview, full Turkish profiles: /gaziler/, deutsche Version: /de/gaziler/.