Turkey commemorates martyrs of the Çanakkale Campaign

Turkey on Sunday marked the 92nd anniversary of the victory over a combined British-French fleet trying to fight its way through the Dardanelles to Istanbul during World War I. The day the allied fleet was forced to beat a hasty retreat is celebrated in Turkey as Çanakkale Victory and Martyrs Day. The March 18 victory was commemorated
in official ceremonies on World War I. battlefields in Çanakkale and Ankara throughout Sunday.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday attended ceremonies on the Gallipoli Peninsula and officially opened a new memorial for unknown Ottoman soldiers and a new museum, located in a restored artillery position on the shores of the Dardanelles that played a major part in the Allied defeat on March 18, 1915.

Addressing the audience gathered at Çanakkale’s March 18 Stadium for the ceremonies, the prime ministers stated that Turkey was moving out of the darkness of its recent history and it was one step closer to the republican ideal. “We are very close to the ideal of an enlightened Turkey, worthy of our martyrs who died in Çanakkale,” Prime Minister Erdoğan stated.

“Every March 18 when we commemorate their sacred memory on this soil, we understand one more time how true it is that blood shed for a flag is what makes it a flag and the martyrs who die for the soil make it a country.”

Çanakkale Strait Commander Adm. Erhan Akporay and Çanakkale Governor Orhan Kırlı also delivered speeches at the ceremony. The prime minister, the commanders and the attending ministers watched the March 18 parade following the speeches at the stadium.

In his message for the day, the president stated that the Turkish nation had gained for itself a respected place in the international community and obtained its right to independence with honor. The president said the Turkish nation had never at any point of history hesitated to sacrifice its life for independence. “Our beautiful country is the inheritance we took from all our martyrs who lost their lives when serving the country with the love of the motherland without paying attention to the difficulties they were facing at home and abroad.”

Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt, in a statement to commemorate the martyrs of war, said the Turkish Armed Forces would continue to be there against all threats directed at the Republic of Turkey and remain as the guarantee of the “eternal existence of the nation.”

In his statement, Büyükanıt said the Turkish Armed Forces was ready to make any sacrifice to ensure the nation’s independence and integrity in the future, as it did in the past.

Another ceremony in the capital was held at the Presidential Palace. State Minister Memet Ali Şahin and athletes accompanying him presented soil, sea water and a Turkish flag brought from the Gallipoli Peninsula to President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Another ceremony to commemorate the martyrs of war was held at Atatürk’s mausoleum, Anıtkabir, in Ankara, where at least 25,000 people including Turkish Armed Forces personnel and the relatives of soldiers killed in action. Ceremonies were also held in various martyrs cemeteries across the country on Sunday.

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