Turkey to restore Russian Tsar Nicholas II's hunting lodge

Speaking to the AA, Director of the Culture and Tourism Department in Kars, Hakan Doganay, said that the hunting lodge in Sarikamis was constructed in a Baltic style.

The hunting lodge was constructed without nails. It was made out of scotch pine, Doganay said.
The restoration will take two years, Doganay also said. The town of Sarikamis was under Russian occupation for 40 years following the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-78.

Tsar Nicholas II (18 May 1868 - 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias--and he is currently regarded as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Nicholas II abdicated following the February Revolution of 1917 during which he and his family were imprisoned first in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, then later in the Governor's Mansion in Tobolsk, and finally at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. Nicholas II, his wife, his son, his four daughters, the family's medical doctor, the Tsar's valet, the Empress' lady-in-waiting and the family's cook were all executed in the same room by the Bolsheviks on the night of 16/17 July 1918. This led to the canonization of Nicholas II, his wife the Empress and their children as martyrs by various groups tied to the Russian Orthodox Church within Russia and, prominently, outside Russia.


/World Bulletin/