Cebeci Asri Cemetery

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The Cebeci Asri Cemetery (Turkish: Cebeci Asri Mezarlığı) is a cemetery located in the Cebeci quarter of central Ankara, Turkey serving multiple religions. It was the first modern burial place in the capital city, and is the final resting place of many prominent figures.

As of 2005, the total number of graves in the Cebeci Asri Cemetery was 220,000, with 121,000 for males and 99,000 for females. The burial rate was two per day. Administered by the municipality, it is the second largest cemetery in Ankara after Karşıyaka Cemetery.^[1]

1 Locating graves
2 Improper burials
3 Notables in the cemetery
4 References

[edit] Locating graves

In 2000, the Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara completed an information system (MEBİS) allowing visitors to search and locate a given person's grave within the three main cemeteries of Ankara. Computer terminals in interactive kiosks placed at the entrance of the cemetery enable visitors to quickly find the location of their relatives' graves. The system also shows the shortest path to graves on a cemetary plan.^[2]

[edit] Improper burials

Most graves in the cemetery have an east-west alignment so that the Muslims can be buried facing southeast towards Mecca in accordance with Islamic law; but members of other religious groups such as Jews and Christians are buried in Cebeci Asri Cemetery with a north-south orientation. Recently, however, a member of the public discovered that about ten thousand Muslims are buried with the incorrect north-south alignment.

The director of cemeteries in Ankara announced that the mistake made 15 years ago can no longer be corrected.^[3] Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, the country's highest Islamic institution, supported this determination, ruling that correction of the orientation of the graves would be disrespectful to the dead, and therefore unnecessary.^[4]

[edit] Notables in the cemetery

Makbule Atadan, sister of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Kerim Afşar (1930–2003), actor^[5]
Erkut Akbay (?–1982), diplomat assassinated along with his wife Nadide by a car bomb at the Turkish Embassy in Lisbon in 1982^[6]
Savaş Başar, actor, famous as the voice-over of Lieutenant Columbo in Turkish
Osman Bölükbaşı (1913–2002), politician
Çetin Emeç, assassinated journalist
Kemal Özay Gönlüm, folk singer
Mevhibe İnönü (1897–1992), wife of the second President İsmet İnönü
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu (1880–1974), writer
Uğur Mumcu (1942–93), assassinated journalist^[7]
Mammed Amin Rasulzade, founding leader of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
Baykal Saran (1937–2006), actor
Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı (1910–56), poet^[8]
Mustafa Rüştü Taşar (1951–2007), politician and former government minister
Bahriye Üçok (1919–90), assassinated journalist
Savaş Yurttaş (1944–2002), actor
Hasan Ali Yucel (1897–1961), poet, politician and former government minister^[9]