Turkey hosts centenary of Gallipoli
Print Edition
TURKEY hosted leaders from World War I’s former Allied powers yesterday to honor the tens of thousands killed at the Battle of Gallipoli 100 years ago in one of the most futile yet emblematic campaigns of the conflict.
The ceremonies were being held the same day as centenary commemorations for the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and several world leaders had opted to attend the events in Yerevan instead.
The Battle of Gallipoli ended with up to half a million casualties and achieved little but ended up playing an important role in forming the national consciousness both of modern Turkey and the young nations of Australia and New Zealand.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believed the “message of peace” delivered from there was important, adding that: “The world needs this message more than ever.
“I repeat once more on behalf of all — before the memory of hundreds of thousands of young men lying in this small peninsula — our determination to work to let peace and prosperity prevail in the world,” he told the ceremony.
Leaders including Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, as well as the heir to the British throne Prince Charles and his son Prince Harry are joining the ceremonies at cemeteries on the Gallipoli peninsula.
While Turkey has boasted that about two dozen heads of state are attending, several key leaders including French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin are instead at the Armenia commemorations.
Armenia says some 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a campaign of genocide by the Ottoman authorities during World War I. But Turkey has always rejected the term genocide, while acknowledging that massacres occurred.
The juxtaposition of the dates of the Armenian killings and Gallipoli campaign has aroused heavy emotions, with Armenians accusing Turkey of shifting the main Gallipoli commemoration event forwards by one day to deliberately overshadow Yerevan ceremonies.
Today, the focus in Gallipoli is to be on the dawn services to remember the estimated 8,700 Australian and 2,800 New Zealand soldiers who lost their lives thousands of miles from home in a sacrifice that helped forge their national identity and is still remembered as Anzac Day.
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