Yakup Satar

Apr 9 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

HE BELONGS to history now, like the other old ones who crossed the boundaries of time with their medals and ribbons to be the last of their kind to remember it.

Their long-gone comrades belong to history as well, but too many, millions of them, were named only on gravestones or memorials, so you couldn’t even list them all in a history book.

But the last ones have a special place.

We think mainly of the Western Front across France and Belgium, but the Great War was a world war and men fought and died in many theatres.

Yakup Satar was born in Crimea, the son of Zeki Bey, a Tartar chieftain, who had fought against the Russian Empire.

In 1915, Satar enlisted in the army of the Ottoman Empire and trained in Constantinople, before being sent to the Mesopotamian Front, where Allied soldiers under Sir Frederick Maude had been advancing up the Tigris from Basra, names that have a peculiar resonance today.

Although outnumbered and out-gunned, the Turks, whose bravery was grudgingly admired by the British, contested every stronghold, falling back amid much slaughter on both sides.

In February, 1917, Satar was captured at the Second Battle of Kut, unaware, of course, as he marched away that one day he would be the final Turkish veteran of the First World War.

But more fighting was to come. After his release in 1918, Satar joined the forces of Mestafa Kemal Ataturk, fighting in the Battle of Sakarya in the war against Greece and other Allied forces, which gained Turkish independence.

There is now only one survivor of that war, Colonel Mustafa Sekip Birgol, who is 110.

Satar became a farmer in peacetime, settling in Eskisehir with his wife and six children, who gave him about 50 grandchildren. As the veterans died, his status rose and students and senior politicians beat a path to his door to learn about the old days.

He was presented with a gold watch by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip, who also led tributes to Satar. Dignitaries and government officials attended his funeral conducted with full military honours.

To visitors, Satar would echo the thoughts of his hero, Ataturk: “Be friends with everyone. Say hello to everyone. If this country is lost, it can’t be won back.”

Yakup Satar, last Turkish survivor of the Great War; born March 11, 1898, died April 2, 2008.