The Turkish Military Cemetery (Maltese: Iċ-Ċimiterju tat-Torok; Turkish: Türk Şehitliği), also known as the Ottoman Military Cemetery (Turkish: Osmanlı Şehitliği), is a cemetery in Marsa, Malta. Commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Abdul Aziz to replace an earlier Muslim cemetery, it was constructed between 1873 and 1874. The cemetery was designed by the Maltese architect Emanuele Luigi Galizia, and it is built in an exotic orientalist style. It is maintained by the Turkish government. Originally the cemetery was referred to as the Mahomedan Cemetery such as on documents, and also referred to as the Martyrs’ Cemetery in Turkey such as on a historic painting.
History
A number of Muslim cemeteries have been located in various locations around Marsa since the 16th century. A cemetery in il-Menqa contained the graves of Ottoman soldiers killed in the Great Siege of Malta of 1565 as well as Muslim slaves who died in Malta. This cemetery was replaced in 1675 by another one near Spencer Hill (Via della Croce), following the construction of the Floriana Lines. Human remains believed to originate from one of these cemeteries were discovered during road works in 2012. The 17th-century cemetery had to be relocated in 1865 to make way for planned road works, with one tombstone dating to 1817 being conserved at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. The remains of a cemetery, together with the foundations of a mosque, and an even more earlier Roman period remains are located at Triq Dicembru 13, Marsa.
A piece of land in the Ta' Sammat area of Marsa was chosen as the new location in 1871. The new cemetery was commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz, and it was constructed between 1873 and 1874. Construction took over six months to complete. It was designed by the Maltese architect Emanuele Luigi Galizia, who designed many other buildings in a range of contrasting styles, including the mixed-denomination Ta' Braxia Cemetery and the Catholic Addolorata Cemetery. The outcome and reception of the later was pertinent for the appointment of Galizia as the architect of the Turkish Military Cemetery. The design for the project was unique in Maltese architecture at that point. Galizia was awarded the Order of the Medjidie by the Ottoman sultan for designing the Turkish cemetery, and thus was made a Knight of that order. At the end of the 19th century the cemetery became a landmark by its own due to its picturesque architecture. On the turn of the 20th century it became an obligation to acquire a permission from the Health Department for each burial within the cemetery for sanitary purposes. Due to the absence of a mosque at the time, the cemetery was generally used for Friday prayers until the construction of a mosque in Paola. The small mosque at the cemetery was intended to be used for prayers during an occasional burial ceremony, but the building and the courtyard of the cemetery became frequently used as the only public prayer site for Muslims until the early 1970s. A properly sized mosque was designed by Architect Galizia but the project was abandoned. The plans are available in Turkish archives in Istanbul which hold the words "Progetto di una moschea – Cimitero Musulmano" (Project for a mosque – Muslim Cemetery). A possible reason for shelving the project was the economic situation and political decline of the Ottoman Empire. The place became too small eventually for the growing Muslim community. A Jewish cemetery was built directly adjacent to the Turkish cemetery in 1879. It was designed by the English architect Webster Paulson in a neoclassical style. Lieutenant-Governor Sir Harry Luke, perhaps unaware that Turkic people are not Arabs, later stated that the area "is the only place in the world where Arabs and Jews lie peacefully together."
The bodies of 23 Moroccan passengers recovered from the SS Sardinia disaster in 1908 were buried at the Turkish Military Cemetery. The passengers had been on the way to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage when the ship burst into flames, killing at least 118 people. During World War I, some Turkish prisoners of war who died in Malta were buried inside the cemetery. The cemetery was restored from March 1919 to October 1920, during which period it also saw renovation with the addition of a monument commemorating the World War I prisoners of war who died in Malta and the building of a prominent fountain. The project was executed by the Ottoman Officer Kuşcubaşı Eşref Bey. The cemetery also contains the graves of some Muslim soldiers from Commonwealth countries (seven from World War I and four from World War II) as well as fifteen French soldiers. The Commonwealth and French war graves are cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
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