Bayraklı Baba

No one comes to Gallipoli (Gelibolu) without tying a flag at Bayraklı Baba ("Father with the Flags") and saying a prayer. The story behind this part of our cultural heritage is just as moving. "Karacabey was in fact a standard-bearer in the Ottoman Navy. In 1410, facing the enemy and putting up resistance, Karacabey realised there was no escape. But he refused to surrender the flag to the enemy, because the flag is sacred; it is honour itself. According to legend, he instantly tore the flag into pieces and swallowed them. Just then reinforcements arrived, the enemy was driven back by a counter-attack, and Karacabey was rescued, wounded. He was asked what he had done with the banner. He said he had swallowed it so as not to hand it to the enemy. Seeing that the commander did not believe him, Karacabey cut open his stomach with the chisel in his hand, pulled out the bloodied pieces of the flag and held them out to the commander. As he breathed his last, proud of what he had done, he said, "Bury me here, and never let a flag be missing above me," and died a martyr…