Tragedy | Pathos | Triumph

Reflections on a terrible battle that spawned the ethos of three modern nations

THE WORDING AT THE ANZAC memorial in Gelibolu (Gallipoli), Turkey, reads thus —

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives in this land, they have become our sons as well." Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, 1934

The irony, the tragedy, the foolishness, the historic legacy, and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit, is embodied in the history and memorialization of a pointless and thoroughly miscalculated landing by British-led allies on the south-west Turkish coast in 1915.

The military campaign's theory was that:

(a) the British led landing — with thousands of brave Australians and New Zealanders taking the brunt of the assault — would land en masse,

(b) overrun the peninsula,

(c) penetrate and subdue both sides of the Dardanelles,

(d) forge a path all the way to Istanbul (Constantinople) and to the south, through Turkey's mainland,

(e) seize control of the Marmara Sea,

(f) hold access to the Black Sea through the Bosphorus, and finally,

(g) from that stronghold, assert new pressure on the German forces. 

With the benefit of hindsight, the reality is that the landing was ill-conceived, wrongly-located, and a nine month stalemate ensued, with approximately 250,000 casualties on each side.

There is, from our perspective, no redeeming aspect of the assault itself. Yet, despite the grave military follies which resulted in great human agony and loss, the identities of three nations were forged out of that failed World War 1 battle.

Australians and New Zealanders — ANZACs — (Australia New Zealand Army Corps), fighting side by side, gained a widespread reputation as both laconic allies and fierce warriors, and as a result, their heroics and the news that filtered back home, led those nations to commence shrugging off their British colonialism, moving rapidly towards their own identity.

On the other side, WW1 marked the end of the Ottoman Empire. A formerly unheralded Turkish colonel, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, became a national hero during the defence of the peninsula. As a result of his new-found reputation, in 1923, Ataturk became the first president of the post-Ottoman secular government of the Republic of Turkey.  

Thus, despite the ravages of war, and a particularly useless military campaign, three nations can trace significant parts of their national identity to Gelibolu — Galipolli.

The moving tribute of Ataturk at the Turkish-built ANZAC shrine symbolizes the generosity and the capacity of the human spirit, over time, to triumph over every adversity. §