First Bullet Monument

The First Bullet Monument in Konak Square commemorates Hasan Tahsin, the journalist who fired the first shot of resistance against the Greek military occupation of İzmir on 15 May 1919. The bronze figure of Tahsin, pistol raised, stands at the edge of the square facing the direction from which the Greek troops landed.

The monument has a powerful symbolic weight in Turkish national memory — Tahsin represents the spontaneous civilian resistance that preceded the formal Turkish War of Independence. The square around it now bears the marks of that history in plaques and memorial details that reward a slow walk.

things to do sight konak
A story
Hasan Tahsin was a journalist who had been working in İzmir for several years when Greek forces landed in the city on 15 May 1919. He was the first person to fire a shot in resistance — and was killed almost immediately. His real name was Osman Nevres, but he was known professionally as Hasan Tahsin. The monument erected to him in Konak Square has become one of the most potent symbols of Turkish national resistance, because he was not a soldier but a civilian journalist with a pistol.

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