Villager finds artillery shell from Great Offensive in backyard

AFYONKARAHİSAR

An unexploded artillery shell, presumably left from the Turkish War of Independence, was found in the backyard of a house in the Aegean province of Afyonkarahisar.

A resident in the Sinanpaşa district, one of the locations where the Great Offensive operation was launched against the Greek Army, which invaded Anatolia between 1919-1922, noticed a hard object in the ground while he was working in his backyard.

After getting notified by the resident, identified only by initials S.I., teams from the Provincial Gendarmerie Command came to the scene to examine the object.

While it was understood that the object found was a 76-mm artillery shell, gendarmerie forces surrounded the area with a security cord against a possible explosion.

Following the examination, the ammunition was destroyed in a controlled manner by the Explosives Disposal Team in a field.

The Great Offensive was the largest and final military operation of the Turkish War of Independence, fought between the Turkish Army and the Kingdom of Greece, ending the Greco-Turkish War.

During the attack that started on Aug. 26, 1922, and ended with the recapture of Izmir on Sept. 9, 1922, the Sinanpaşa settlement and the surrounding areas were battered by hundreds of artilleries belonging to two forces.

Almost 100 years have passed since the war, but its traces like ammunition or other remains can still be found in the region.