Sarıkamış Memorial Sites

2nd PRIZE

There was a dramatic war between Russian and Turkish armies in the beginning of the World War I. Without encountering the Russian troops, thousands of Turkish soldiers died in the snowy mountains of the area due to the heavy weather conditions. The proposed memorial area consists of one memorial square and tens of lonely-walking paths in order to memorialize the quite and sole marches of these soldiers.

 

It is also aimed to integrate the martyrdoms in the surrounding settlements in the commemoration framework we proposed. Those who will attend the ceremonies will be coming from Kızılçubuk, Hamamlı, Alisofu and other martyrdoms and either by walking or motor vehicles gather at the festival meadow, then reaching to the Commemoration Park and Ceremonial Square following the memorial route. Following the ceremony, visitor was supposed to take various paths and scatter to the landscape. Those commemoration routes aimed to symbolize the walk of the soldiers as a unity, slowly melting, decreasing in number and ending up with the death of a single soldier.

Location: Kars
Assignment: Urban design, sculpture design
Size: city-wide
Year: 2008
Status: competition-awarded
Client: Ministry of Culture
In collaboration with: Sinan Omacan, Evrim Kavcar