ANZACs at Gallipoli

As we set out on the Kiwi (and Aussie) pilgrimage to Gallipoli our group of 10 watched a documentary on the Gallipoli campaign on the bus. We got the low-down on the politician’s reasoning/strategy which ignored numerous intelligence reports and warnings to launch the offensive, and saw personal letters and diaries from soldiers and commanders on both sides revealing their mindset and the atrocities through which they endured (and many who didn‘t). We had the futility of the war which raged on this peninsula refreshed in our minds.

But no documentary can compare to standing on the cliff above ANZAC Cove and seeing the landing site where the troops were mistakenly landed and had to climb the cliff with full (and wet) combat gear. Or looking beyond the graves of 17 year old “soldiers” to the narrow stretch of water that was the reason for the whole conflict. Or standing on a stretch of ground shorter than a rugby field that thousands of men sacrificed their lives for.

Surprisingly, the most memorable part for me was not the ANZAC, Australian, New Zealand, nor British memorial sites, but the Turk memorial. It has a quote from Ataturk - the Turk commander who went on to found Turkey after the war - that sums up the sentiment between the opposing troops, and which lives on today. Though it was their duty to shoot at and blow up each other every minute of every day, both sides also lobbed tins of food and cigarettes to each other across the trenches, and during ceasefires that were called to bury the dead they would shake hands and share family photos. This quote manages to encapsulate the kinship that the Turkish people reserve especially for ANZACs:

“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 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 on this land they have become our sons as well.”

This is the kind of understanding and tolerance that Turkey was founded on, and makes it such unique member of the Middle East community today - it is a close ally to both the USA and Iran, and up until the recent events with aid ships, has been a close supporter of Israel while being a nation that is 99% Muslim.

So here are another two (more recent) quotes from some less famous Turks that have stuck in my head:

“We Turks, we LOVE Kiwis and Aussies” - Close friend of Hayden, our local Istanbul Kiwi.

“Turkey is an Islamic country, but we have no issue with Jews, or any religion. We have no problem with an Israeli state. We are angry because the country of Israel attacked and killed our civilians” - Driver of a carpet van who picked us up off the side of a country road and gave us a ride back to the village where we were staying.

The Turks that we have met are unbelievably patriotic under their nation‘s flag, yet retain an individual identity (family, religious, ethnic, regional, and more) just as strong, all the while tempering it with a rational tolerance for others. This has been one of the best things about Turkey for me, and continues what is becoming a theme of the trip so far - breaking the negative, one dimensional stereotypes and interpretations offered by news and media, and finding that the world isn’t nearly as scary as it’s made out to be.