Politician Çetinkaya recalls: There was once a Bandırma Missile Club

The first Turkish astronaut Alper Gezeravcı was among those on the AX-3 mission, whose Dragon spacecraft capsule was launched from the Kennedy Space Center at 00:49 TSI.

Evaluating Gezeravcı's journey into space, politician Nurhan Çetinkaya recalled the Bandırma Missile Club. Reminding people of the space studies conducted by the club under the leadership of Kirkor Divarcı, Çetinkaya wrote the following:

I congratulate Alper Gezeravcı; his first words were "The future is in the skies."

I don't know if a space trip that anyone with 55 million dollars in their pocket and the right physical conditions can take today is a source of pride or not, but if the house containing Kirkor Divarcı's project had not been burned down in 1959, Mr. Alper Gezeravcı would have been someone traveling in our own spacecraft.

The Bandırma Missile Club was founded in 1959 in Bandırma by high school students, a club the likes of which had never been seen in Turkey. Despite very limited resources, these young people immediately got to work; calculations were made, and then practical trials began. The number of people joining the club founded by the high schoolers grew steadily. And among the young people in the club, there was one name determined enough to give up everything: Kirkor Divarcı. Divarcı, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, turned down many opportunities just for this cause.

Divarcı was so devoted to this work that he used the 400 liras he and his fiancée had saved for the first version of the missile without a second thought… V2-Rocket Kirkor Divarcı first had his project approved by Istanbul Technical University. Then, he made contact with the Turkish Armed Forces. With the support of the army, he carried out the first missile launch.

September 19, 1962… Kirkor Divarcı's project, which he brought to life with the support of the army, the first Turkish missile named "Marmara-1," which was 1 meter 33 cm long, weighed 2.5 kilograms, and bore the crescent and star, took to the skies… Although there were some technical failures and bad luck, Marmara-I went down in history as our "first real missile" to challenge the sky. And this success gave courage to those continuing missile studies. Kirkor Divarcı also had other missile trials (Marmara-II).

As a result of missile studies that became increasingly successful over time, branches of the Bandırma Missile Club were opened in Istanbul and Ankara. Then, missiles began to be launched without stopping. Marmara-I and Marmara-II were followed by Hürriyet-I and Hürriyet-II. Thanks to Kirkor Divarcı's promising work and the idealistic young people who devoted themselves to this cause, even better developments occurred over time… For example, work was done on a project called "Aktrüs." According to this, a living creature (a mouse) would be sent into space for the first time with a missile planned to be 4 meters long and weigh 500 kg.

Then, an invisible hand told those doing the missile work that it was "over." And with a sudden fire that broke out in Kirkor Divarcı's house, all projects were reduced to ashes… This incident was not pursued and has still not been clarified. The testing grounds were closed, and the work was suddenly terminated. In short, the work that began in a promising way in 1959 and peaked in 1963 was cut short by an unsolved mystery.

News Source: 12punto