Date: Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Partners for the day: Nkosi (text) Laura (images)
Site(s):Gallipoli
Museum(s):
Principal Buildings/Monuments: Anzac Cemetery, Statue of Atatürk
Time Spent on Each Site: from ca. 5:30 to ca.6:30 [ _1___ hour]
Weather:Sunny and clear, temperature varied from chilly in Istanbul to beautifully warm in Çanakkale
Today was a traveling day for the group. We had the morning free to explore the city and recover from the previous nights exploits. In the afternoon we explored the WWI memorial at Gallipoli. A large portion of our time was spent on the bus, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t learn anything. Our tour guide, Hüsnü Ovacik, gave us some very interesting information on the Turkish language and culture.
Several members of the group went out last night and so spent the majority of their free morning in bed, recovering. From what I am told they had a fun time in Istanbul. So while Jackie, Caleb, Peter, Ben were sleeping, Katherine and Laura braved the outdoors to go to the internet café. Later in the morning Jackie awoke with a need for fresh air and went to the Bazaar near the Blue Mosque with me, Nkosi. Jackie enjoys haggling and had fun shopping. I on the other hand found it a complete waste of time. We ended up spending so much time haggling that we were almost late for the bus. Fortunately, we arrived back at the hotel and left Istanbul around noon.
Getting out of the city was a bit of a hassle, but Hüsnü gave a very interesting lecture on the origins of the Turkish language and the places where it is spoken. It appears that Turkish was originally a central Asian language. Throughout its history it has used three different alphabets. One is lost. The second was Arabic. The modern alphabet was adapted after the creation of the republic and uses the basic Latin alphabet with a few extra letters. Since the first group of people who spoke Turkish were nomads, Turkish can was used throughout Asia and Asia Minor and can be still be found today in a few unexpected places. For instance, Turkish is spoken today in some parts of Northern China.
We stopped for lunch at a self-serve restaurant attached to a gas station around 3 pm. It wasn’t the best meal we have had in Turkey. It was nice to stretch our legs, especially since we had another two hours before we would arrive in Gallipoli.
We arrived in Gallipoli around 5:30 and were greeted by a very peaceful park on the water. The peace and calm of the area was misleading as one million men were wounded or killed fighting here over a period of eight months in 1915. The campaign began on March 18, 1915 when the allied forces sent a force of mainly Australian and New Zealanders to capture the hills of Gallipoli.
The battle is important more for what it didn’t accomplish than for what it did. The original goals of the campaign were to take the Dardanelles and control the sea ports of the Black Sea. They wanted to control the main supply routes by which the Turks supplied the Germans. Controlling the Dardanelles would also mean they could provide supplies to the Russians. Since the campaign failed, however, the Germans were able to continue supplying their troops. It also meant that the Allied forces were unable to pass supplies to the Russians desperate for help.
According to Hüsnü this site is especially important to New Zealanders and Australians because it was the first war that they engaged in. It is a source of national pride because at Gallipoli they feel they became nations. If I were an Australian or a New Zealander I would value this site not only because it is a place were my ancestors had fought and died for a world cause, but also because of the reverence with which the Turks have treated this site. It has been turned into a national park, which in the early years of the Republic was replanted with pine trees and shrubs. Bronze statues of New Zealanders, Australians and Turks stand in the same cemetery plots of those who had been their enemies. The Turks have even dedicated a monument with a quotation by Atatürk offering their condolences and adopting the fallen sons of New Zealand and Australia. Every year 20,000 Australians and New Zealanders come to the site to commemorate the battles fought here. It is also a site of interest and pride to the Turks. The site appears to be well received by both parties and can be considered a successful memorialization of the battles of Gallipoli.