I do not know where to start. Whenever Nuri Killigil’s name lands in my lap, something deep still bleeds. Do we mourn the years of hardship he treated as a gift for love of country, or the cruel ending that followed anyway?
For a long time Nuri Paşa lived in history’s forgotten pages as one of our own heroes. Fresh interest in domestic defense industry, and people who want to salute his memory again, helped bring Nuri Paşa: A Life at the Tip of the Barrel to the screen.
A large gala ran last Friday ahead of TRT airings. With TRT Director General İbrahim Eren, the film’s writer-director, cast, and guests in the room, the documentary won the night.
Nuri Killigil weapons factoryWatching it first at the gala felt like a privilege. It holds so many of the things people mean when they say “Nuri Paşa” that I left both sad and glad. From Tripoli to Baku, a young officer who never blinked on love of country becomes, in the early Republic years, an idealist bent on building weapons and ammunition for the army at home. That arc reaches the screen intact.
Younger brother of Enver Paşa, he earned titles among Azerbaijani Turks as a “savior angel from the sky” and “conqueror of Baku,” risking his life along the way. Later, even after ranks were stripped, he kept serving the homeland. In his second act he planted early seeds of the domestic production push we talk about again today.
With arms factories in Istanbul he aimed to design and build weapons and ammunition so the country would not depend on outsiders. The same outside pressures that shadowed his military career tried to extinguish that defense-industry passion too. His support for the Palestinian cause in the early years of occupation made his name across the Middle East, and his end leaves the room wet-eyed.
He carried a love for Azerbaijan and, beside it, a love for Süreyya Hanım. After Baku he buried that feeling for years. The film handles patriotism, heroism, and those loves with real force.
The scene that hit me hardest is Nuri Paşa stepping onto Baku soil again in 1921 and meeting Süreyya Hanım. Even if you bury a love in your chest, you are still human: your throat catches, something aches, and the walk past her costs years. Eray Türk plays that beat without missing.
From here, a salute to everyone who has buried a love the same way.
Nuri Paşa: A Life at the Tip of the BarrelMy biggest worry going in was the cast. Eray Türk and Nuri Gündoğan, who play young Nuri Paşa, earn their keep, and the rest of the company should not be shortchanged either.
Director, producer, writer, and crew deliver a complete documentary. Hoping for another TV watch soon. Saluting Nuri Paşa’s memory, and not forgetting the lines the great Azerbaijani poet Ahmet Cevat wrote for him:
