Özet:

In the Turkish belief and thought system before Islam, the homeland was seen as holy so that this led people sacrifice their lives for the sake of it. For the Turks, the death for the homeland during war had an honorary and holy aspect. By this way the Turks got the title “soldier”, and they had the right to keep their names “forever” with the priority of erecting “bengu stone” (the stone of eternal life). In the periods when the Turks converted into Islam, parallel to the previous belief and thought system before Islam, martyrdom  was  praised  both  for  the  homeland  and  the  nation  and  the spreading and keeping the name of the God. They were praised both in Koran and Prophet Mohammed’s hadiths and martyrdom was elevated by mentioning the spiritual rankings martyrs would gain.  In this study, people’s beliefs, practices and memoriates originated around  the  soldiers  and  their  relatives  who  became  martyrs  during  the events of the terrorist separationist party, PKK (Kurdistan Working Party) after 1980 were analyzed in the example of Edirnekapı Martyrs Memorial. The perspective of their relatives to the concept of martyrdom, the place of martyrdom concept in Istanbul folklore, people’s beliefs, practices and memoriates’ reflection on the oral, written and electronic cultural platforms originated around martyrdom were evaluated according to the information from the relatives of the martyrs which were compiled according to the compilation method.