Nene Hatun

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Erzurum Azizye Bastion

Nene Hatun (1857- May 22, 1955) was a twenty year old woman with a three month old baby at the start of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78, which is known as the "The war of 93" (93 Harbi) in Turkish to refer the year 1293 in Rumi Calendar when the battle started. She had been living in a neighborhood of Erzurum called Aziziye that was close to an important fortification defending the city. In November 1877 Aziziye Fort was attacked by the Russians. They captured it, carrying off 500 Turkish prisoners. A Turkish counter-attack followed and the Russians were heavily defeated and forced to retreat partly due to the actions of women volunteers from the city's civilian population. Nene Hatun was identified as being the most heroic of them all and became a symbol of bravery. Third-party reports on the battle for Aziziye Fort shed a less-favourable light on the events and speak of terrible mutilations being inflicted on the Russian soldiers. C. B. Norman, reporter for the Daily News, recorded that "Nearly every Russian found lying on the ground was decapitated or otherwise mangled; and the dreadful crimes appear to have been perpretrated by women from the city who, when it was seen that the Russians were defeated, issued forth with knives, hatchets, and other household weapons, to dispatch the wounded who lay gasping on the ground." ^[1]

Nene Hatun lived in Aziziye her entire life, and died there at the age of 98. She was named as "Mother of the Mothers" in 1955. Until her death, she was also known as the "Mother of the Third Army" because of her close ties with the military personnel in her region. ^[2] There is a project about shooting a movie about the heroic life of her. The project is expected to be ready by November 2007.^[3]

Nene Hatun should not be confused with Mama Hatun who, although associated with the same geography of Erzurum, was an important figure of the 12th century Beylik of Saltuklu.