TURKEY-GALLIPOLI/MARCH Thousands retrace steps of Ottoman Turks for ANZAC landings centenary

Record ID: 134831

  • Title: TURKEY-GALLIPOLI/MARCH Thousands retrace steps of Ottoman Turks for ANZAC landings centenary
  • Date: 25th April 2015
  • Summary: GALLIPOLI, TURKEY (APRIL 25, 2015) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE PRAYING AHEAD OF MARCH CLOSE OF HANDS TURKISH SOLDIERS STANDING GUARD VARIOUS OF TURKISH SCOUTS MARCHING BAND PLAYING DRUMS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE BEGINNING TO MARCH
  • Embargoed: 10th May 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAABW5DFSV458KOH84Z4JVHTG0I
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Thousands of young Turks on Saturday (April 25) marched along the route the Ottoman Turkish 57th Regiment took at dawn, 100 years ago, before engaging in one of the bloodiest battles of World War One.
    Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, deployed the regiment to foil the initial attack by British, French, Australian and New Zealand troops which landed on the strategic Gallipoli peninsula on April 25, 1915.
    The peninsula has become a site of pilgrimage for visitors from Australia and New Zealand in particular, who honour their fallen in graveyards halfway around the world on ANZAC Day each year. This year is set to be the largest ever commemoration.
    For Turkey, it is also a national touchstone, heralding the rise of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who as a young officer led the defence. He later founded modern Turkey, the secular republic that emerged from the ruins of the Ottoman empire.
    "History lies here. We've always known that but we never had the chance of visiting this place although we have been reading about it in our history books. Our teachers taught it to us as well. But it was great to experience it personally. I hope the ceremonies will be always joyful, like this year," said Murat Ilik, who came on the march.
    "I come from the city of Erzurum. Our ancestors fought here for us 100 years ago. We wanted to come here and commemorate them. It was a beautiful march" said Emre Sevinc.
    The Gallipoli campaign has resonated through generations, which have mourned the thousands of soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) cut down by machine-gun and artillery fire as they struggled ashore on a narrow beach.
    The fighting would eventually claim more than 130,000 lives, 87,000 of them on the side of the Ottoman Turks, who were allied with imperial Germany in World War One.
    The march finished after 8km (5 miles) at 57th regiment headquarters where a ceremony was held to commemorate Turkish soldiers.
    This year the centennial of Gallipoli coincided with the 100th anniversary of 1915 mass killings of Armenians, in what they say was a genocide, a charge Turkey vehemently dismisses.
    "Some people try to act in a certain manner against us, raising accusations that our belief would never allow us to realise. The truth lies in pages of history. We have always stressed that the Turkish State and our ancestors have nothing to hide. Our archives are always open on any subject but it is historians' job to research what happened in history. They are the ones who will research the history and shed light on what happened. Politicians and parliaments should not be involved in this." Turkish Minister of Youth and Sports Suat Kilic said.
    Turkey denies that the killings, at a time when Ottoman troops were fighting Russian forces, constituted genocide. It says there was no organised campaign to wipe out Armenians and no evidence of any such orders from the Ottoman authorities.
    Most Western scholars and two dozen governments regard the events of 1915 as a genocide against a civilization that flourished in what is now modern Turkey for four millennia.
    Turkey, which has no diplomatic ties with Armenia, argues that as many, if not more, Muslims died in the turmoil of a war that destroyed the Ottoman Empire. The modern Turkish Republic was built on its ashes in 1923.
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