SERVET YANATMA / ANKARA
TODAY’S ZAMAN
While Armenia is getting ready for the commemoration of the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 during World War I throughout this year in a series of events, the Turkish government plans to highlight the 100th year of the Çanakkale (Dardanelles) campaign in response to the Armenians’ efforts by planning a one-day visit to Çanakkale as part of the annual Ambassadors Conference in January.
In a move to ease the adverse effects of the upcoming commemoration of the 1915 events, Turkey has scheduled the annual ceremony to commemorate the Çanakkale campaign on April 24-25 and the ambassadors are expected to visit Çanakkale as part of the seventh annual Ambassadors Conference on Jan. 9.
The conference, organized by the Foreign Ministry annually and in which all Turkey’s ambassadors particpate, will take place on Jan. 5-9.
The conference’s program has been changed due to some technical problems. The ambassadors were previously scheduled to continue the conference in Çanakkale but they will now join the commemoration only as part of a one-day visit.
Despite the problems, the Çanakkale program of the conference has not been cancelled as Turkey aims to highlight the campaign in response to the 100th year of the 1915 events.
The Çanakkale Campaign, also known as the Gallipoli Campaign, took place on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey from April 1915 to January 1916 during World War I. A joint British and French operation was mounted to capture the Ottoman capital of İstanbul and secure a sea route to Russia. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzacs) formed the backbone of a 200,000-man, British-led army that landed at Gallipoli.
The attempt failed, with heavy casualties on both sides, but it resonated profoundly among all nations involved. Nearly 1 million soldiers fought in trench warfare at Gallipoli. The allies recorded 55,000 killed in fighting with 10,000 missing and 21,000 dead from disease. Turkish casualties were estimated at around 250,000.
The campaign was the first major battle undertaken by the Anzac troops and is often considered to mark the birth of national consciousness in both Australia and New Zealand; Anzac Day, April 25, remains the most significant commemoration of military casualties in these countries. Each year, thousands of people, many of them Australians and New Zealanders, travel to the battlefields in northwestern Turkey on April 25, the start of the military campaign.
The battle is considered a defining moment in the history of the Turkish people. The struggle laid the ground for the Turkish War of Independence and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, himself a commander at Gallipoli.
Last year in April, Australians and New Zealanders observed the 98th anniversary of the troops comprising their ancestors landing at Gelibolu (the Gallipoli peninsula) during the World War I Çanakkale (Dardanelles) Campaign.
The visitors arrived at the Gallipoli peninsula’s Anzac Bay and waited until the hour of the service in their sleeping bags.
New Zealand Minister of Defense Jonathon Coleman was also in attendance at the commemoration event. Addressing the visitors, he said his country and Turkey are now friends, adding: “It is a place you have never been to before, but at the same time you have grown up with. It is a place of sadness, but a place of great pride.”
Coleman said seeing an Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) dawn is an unparalleled experience that brings back past memories for a New Zealander and noted that the long list of names of the fallen soldiers are proof of the deep wounds caused by major wars on societies.
The Gallipoli Campaign has had a huge impact on forming the national identity for New Zealanders, Coleman said, highlighting that the campaign also resulted in an everlasting friendship between old foes, New Zealand and Turkey. He later thanked Turks for their hospitality.
Warren Edward Snowdon, a member of the Australian parliament and the Australian House of Representatives, also delivered a speech during the dawn service, recalling at the end of the first day of landing, when more than 16,000 Anzacs stepped on Turkish soil and that 2,000 of those lost their lives or were wounded on the shores, water, hills and valley of the region. “The war was so severe that still the graves of half of those who died are unknown,” he said.
Elsewhere in Gallipoli, some 15,000 people from across Turkey gathered to join a march, called “National Consciousness 57th Regiment Walk,” on the route where the 57th infantry regiment passed in 1915 during the war at dawn. Led by Sports Minister Suat Kılıç, the eight-kilometer march was held by the Turkish General Staff, the Çanakkale Governor’s Office, the Turkish Scouting Federation and the Turkish National Student Council.