Haydar Çavuş Mosque

Haydar Çavuş Mosque in Bandırma is remembered chiefly for an episode from the final days of the Greek occupation of the town during the Turkish War of Independence. As occupying forces withdrew, they are reported to have tried to confine a group of captured local civilians inside the mosque and set it alight; the civilians were freed before the fire could claim them, though the building itself was damaged in the attempt. The mosque was subsequently repaired and returned to use. Because of this episode, Haydar Çavuş Mosque is counted today among the landmarks of Bandırma associated with the National Resistance period, when Balıkesir province as a whole became an early center of organized opposition to the post-war occupation of western Anatolia. The building is cited on local heritage routes that trace the physical sites connected to this phase of the independence struggle.