Burnt Mosque Massacre

The Burnt Mosque Massacre was a mass killing in which a large number of Muslim-Turkish civilians lost their lives in 1915 in a building in Ardahan known as the Arab Mosque or Halil Efendi Mosque. The event occurred within the context of actions carried out by Armenian armed groups operating alongside the Russian army. Following the massacre, the mosque became known among the public as the “Burnt Mosque” due to the fire that destroyed it.

During the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877–1878, Ardahan and its surroundings were occupied by the Russian army. Attacks against the local population increased due to the activities of Armenian groups accompanying Russian units. After the occupation, various structures including the mosque, tomb, and historical monuments were destroyed, and repression and violent acts against the Muslim population took place. The process that began with Kars and its surroundings falling under Russian control on 18 November 1877 lasted approximately forty years, during which numerous religious buildings and settlements were bombed, demolished, and damaged. The Muslim-Turkish population was subjected to various acts of terror, resulting in deaths or forced displacement.

^{Quatrain Located at the Base of the Monument (}Nurettin Büyükbaş⁾

The Arab Mosque was a place of worship located at the foot of Ardahan Castle and is reported to have stood until 1915. It was left in ruins due to attacks following the Russo-Ottoman War and was completely destroyed by fire after the mass killing of 1915. The mosque was later referred to as the “Burnt Mosque.”

With the commencement of the Sarikamish Campaign, the Muslim-Turkish population in the region welcomed the arrival of regular Ottoman military units with joy. This development alarmed the local Armenians, who, under the pretext of issuing announcements, lured the population into the mosque.

On 4–5 January 1915, Armenian armed groups supported by the Russian army gathered between 300 and 370 Muslim-Turkish civilians inside the mosque. The doors and windows were then locked by the Armenians, preventing anyone from exiting. Subsequently, bundles of straw and hay were piled against the doors and windows and set on fire. As a result of this massacre, the 300 to 370 Muslim-Turkish civilians inside the mosque perished in the flames.

Accounts passed down by survivors to subsequent generations describe how people were suddenly gathered, locked inside the mosque, and denied any means of escape. Testimonies state that human remains were found around the mosque after the fire and that human fat flowed into the riverbed.

^{Burnt Mosque Monument (}Nurettin Büyükbaş⁾

The massacre has become embedded in Ardahan’s collective memory over the years and is commemorated through various memorial events. In different years, memorial ceremonies have been held before the Burnt Mosque Monument, and collective prayers have been offered for the civilian victims. The inscriptions on and around the monument read:

Ardahan was our life, and it is gone,

Our Turkish tongue is gone,

Inform Sultan Hamid,

The key to Istanbul is lost.

Another section includes a quatrain from Mehmet Akif Ersoy’s poem “Çanakkale Martyrs”:

O soldier who fell to the earth for these lands,

May your pure forehead be kissed by ancestors descending from heaven.

How great you are, that your blood preserves the unity of God…

Only the lions of Badr were as glorious as this.

The monument bears the inscription: “Erected in memory of the 300 Turkish martyrs burned and murdered by Russians and Armenians on 4–5 January.” Below this, a quote from Kazım Karabekir reads: “The straits are our throat, Kars-Ardahan is our backbone. As long as we do not hold that region, the defense of Anatolia weakens.”