Today we visited the battlefields, bunkers, and gravesites of the 8 month campaign at Gallipoli on World War I on the Gelibolu Peninsula. We took a car ferry across the Dardanelles to Gallipoli. We've been learning so much about the history of Greek, Turkey, the various groups that fought and lived here, but it was especially moving to be standing in the spot where so many Turks, Aussies, and New Zealanders fought so long and so hard.
It seems to me to be a day where the pictures will need to do the talking.
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| Gallipoli in the distance |
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| The reminders to visitors that this is a battlefield where many from many different countries fought againist each other and died - therefore we should be respectful of their sacrifice. |
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| The shoreline where on April 25, 1915 the ANZAC (Austrilian New Zealand Army Corps) landed in an attempt to take over the peninsula from the Turks. The initial landing did not go well for the Allies, but the campgain lasted 8 months. |
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| New Zealand Cemetery |
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| Behind all shadows standeth God |
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| Well the Turk and the ANZACs were fighting each for 8 months, either side really had an anomosity with each other. This statute represents the story where a Turk saw a Aussie soldier get shot in battle and walked out on to the field and carried him over to the ANZAC battlelines. Both sides stopped fighting until the soldier was returned and then it started up, as ordered, again. Amazing stories of humanity admist a time of horror and war. |
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| This statute was in one of the Turkish cemeteries and just touched my heart. |
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| A look inside one of the Turkish trenches - the ANZAC trenches were literally less than 12 paces away. |
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| Ataturk's momunment. His military leadership lead the Turks to victory here. He was actually shot in battle at one point when his entire regiment was killed. The only reason he wasn't killed was because he had a pocket watch in his breast pocket that deflected the bullet. |
Every year on April 25, ANZAC day, Australians, New Zealands, and Turks come together in Gallilopi to remember the soldiers from all sides of the campaign. They start at the the New Zealand cemetery and then walk up to the Austrailian cemetries, and then up to the Turkish ones. What an amazing show of peace and reconciliation.
Here are the words of Ataturk that he spoke at Gallilopi in 1934:
To us there is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets...You, the mothers, who sent your songs from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; yours sons are now lying in our bosom...After having lost their lives in this land, they have become our sons as well.
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