The monument stands in Cumhuriyet Meydanı in Çekerek, and what it marks happened in the first years of the War of Independence. The Aynacıoğulları, living in the village of Özüveren, gathered armed men around them, rose in revolt and raided the districts of Zile and Akdağ.
Forces of the Kuvayı Milliye under Major Ali Galip Bey moved against the revolt and engaged them near the village of Koyunculu, but were taken prisoner after the village imam, Osman Yılmaz — known as Kör Hoca — sided with the rebels. Ali Galip Bey and six fellow officers were taken toward the Deveci mountains near Fakıdağ and killed there. The episode is remembered as the Kör Hoca incident.
The remains of the officers were brought to Hacıköy in 1935, at the urging of Ali Galip Bey's brother, then a member of parliament, and of the townspeople; Hacıköy was the local centre then and is the district centre now. A memorial was raised over them. The town later took the name of the Çekerek river.
The monument was renewed in 1984 and altered again since. Seven blocks rise from a polygonal marble-stepped base, set in a triangle of grass behind low iron railings, and meet at the top in a triangle that opens outward like a fan. Below those segments, on a rectangular marble-faced plinth about half a metre off the ground, is the inscription.
Getting there
- Access
- The monument is in the centre of Çekerek, reached by road.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Yozgat as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -1.6 °C in January to 19.9 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (75 mm) and lightest in August (11 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
