On the 108th anniversary of the Çanakkale land battles in World War I, a commemoration ceremony on the historical Gallipoli peninsula was held to pay tribute to the fallen Australian and New Zealander soldiers who arrived via the Dardanelles strait on April 25, 1915, on the side of British allies to fight the Ottoman Army.
Hundreds of visitors arriving from New Zealand and Australia commemorated their ancestors who died on the battlefield in Gallipoli, or Gelibolu in Turkish, in an early solemn service held in Anzac Cove on Tuesday morning.
Çanakkale Deputy Governor Davut Boztaş, Çanakkale Wars Gallipoli Historical Site head Ismail Kaşdemir, Çanakkale Strait and Garrison Commander Rear Adm. Mustafa Turhan, Australia’s Çanakkale Consul Hary Hall, Australian Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh, New Zealand Defense Minister Andrew Little, as well as many ambassadors and defense attaches from 25 other countries attended the ceremony.
Nearly 2,000 Australians and New Zealanders traveled to the former battlefields overlooking the Dardanelles for the annual sunrise commemoration of the start of the eight-month campaign.
As part of the ceremony, paying tribute to the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, known as the Anzacs, the video and documentary about Shell Green Cemetery was played on the led screens while the wreath-laying ceremony started at 5:45 a.m. local time.
In the program that started at dawn, Australian Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh and New Zealand Defense Minister Andrew Little delivered speeches on the day’s significance. The letter of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish republic, to the families of foreign soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Çanakkale was also read.
“As the dawn breaks on Anzac Day, we come to places like these solemnly, silently and respectfully. We do not come to glorify war. We come to acknowledge high respects and to honor all who sacrificed life and limb, mind and spirit in battle,” Australian Veterans’ Affairs Minister Matt Keogh said.
Keogh also expressed condolences for the victims of Türkiye’s devastating earthquake in February, which left more than 50,000 dead.
According to Demirören News Agency (DHA) reports, it was seen that attendees of the memorial program had "Let’s not forget" and "Anzac Day" tags on their clothes. After a moment of silence, the national anthems of Türkiye, Australia and New Zealand were played, while the ceremony ended with an invocation delivered by a priest.
The Gallipoli campaign aimed to secure a naval route from the Mediterranean Sea to Istanbul through the Dardanelles and knock the Ottomans out of the war. The April 25, 1915, landings marked the start of a fierce battle that lasted for eight months. As a result, more than 44,000 Allied soldiers from British, Irish, French, Australian, New Zealand, Indian and Canadian troops, and 86,000 Ottoman soldiers died.
The day is also commemorated in Australia and New Zealand as Anzac Day and Gallipoli is seen as one of the defining events that ushered both countries toward nationhood.
The battle also forged links between Türkiye, which emerged as a modern state shortly after the war, and the Anzac countries.
Australia and New Zealand commemorate Anzac Day every April 25 to mark when the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the beaches of Gallipoli, in northwest Türkiye, in an ill-fated campaign that was the soldiers’ first combat of World War I.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke to more than 30,000 people who gathered at the Australian War Memorial in the national capital Canberra for the first Anzac Day since his government was elected almost a year ago.
“Gallipoli is just one battle in our history, but in all its stories of valor and resilience, in its simple truth of Australians looking out for each other no matter how bad things got, it has come to stand for something so much bigger in our collective heart,” Albanese said.
Veterans Affairs Minister Keogh, representing his government at Gallipoli, said the dawn service there was expected to attract the biggest crowd since the centenary commemorations in 2015.
“What we’ve really seen Anzac Day become is not just about one conflict; it’s now a day where we commemorate not just those that died but all those people that have served in our uniform on our behalf in conflict,” Keogh told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Some ceremonies also marked milestone anniversaries for the end of Australia’s involvement in the Korean and Vietnam wars, where roughly 78,000 troops served and 863 lost their lives.
Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins attended his local dawn service near the capital Wellington.
Hipkins spoke about his grandfather’s experiences in World War II. One served as a signalman in the Air Force, and another in Italy, Greece and Japan. “I think about all of the people who have at various points sacrificed for New Zealand and our freedom,” he told RNZ radio.
