Turkey invites world leaders, including Armenian president, to Gallipoli commemoration

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu have sent letters to 102 countries, inviting heads of states, to attend commemoration ceremonies in Turkey marking the 100th anniversary of the World War I Gallipoli campaign this year on 23-24 April.

The invitation letters have also been sent to the U.S. President Barack Obama and the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, to participate in the Gallipoli centenary.

"We fought as a kind together. That's why we have invited Sargsyan," a government official told the daily Hürriyet, referring to the presence of Armenian minorities alongside Turks and other peoples in the Ottoman army.

The ceremonies coincide exactly with the 1915 incidents of the World War I. Armenians and the Armenian diaspora, who plan to mark the anniversary on April 24, want the incidents to be recognized as genocide, something Turkey has vehemently rejected.

Were Sargsyan to accept Erdoğan's invitation, his presence at Gallipoli would mean he would likely be outside of Armenia for the commemorations for the tragedy.

The Gallipoli campaign was one of the most famous battles of World War I when Ottoman troops resisted an invading Allied Force seeking control of the Gallipoli peninsula on the Dardanelles strait.

April 25, known as Anzac Day, marks the landing of Allied forces into the peninsula, thus the start of the land campaign.

The founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as a division commander who stopped the initial advance of Anzac troops and confined them into a thin land strip along the shore, made his name as a heroic military leader.

Britain, Australia and New Zealand want a flamboyant ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli.

The prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand, as well as Britain's Prince Charles, with his sons, are expected to take part in the ceremony due to attract 8,500 Australians and 2,000 New Zealanders, the newspaper said.

Last year Erdoğan, then premier, offered an unprecedented expression of condolence for the massacres of Armenians.