Places to Visit and Things to Do in Gallipoli
Nihan Uğurlu · Keyfi Yazılarım ·
Travel memories from 2014. Hours and prices may change; check official links before visiting.
Personal travel notes, discoveries along the way and photographs from the original story.
Travel notes
Çanakkale: ground on which an era was brought to an end. The Gallipoli campaign of the First World War was fought on this peninsula in 1915–16 between Ottoman and Allied forces.
From the moment I arrived in Çanakkale, I felt an unusual mixture of sadness, history and emotion—and wondered why I had not come earlier. The Allies fought to force a passage through the straits, at an immense human cost. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the Turkish soldiers resisted in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. I feel profound gratitude for their sacrifice.
Akbaş Cemetery: it is impossible for me to enter this place without feeling a shiver.
My original account reflected on how service at Gallipoli became central to Australian national identity and how the landings are commemorated on 25 April, Anzac Day. It also repeated historical claims about Australians fighting alongside British forces in some 48 countries and characterised that earlier service in a way that should be read as the original writer’s interpretation, not a neutral historical finding. The casualty figures recorded in my notes were 26,094 Australians and 7,571 New Zealanders, a total of 33,665; these are not presented here as verified death totals. What moved me most was the mutual respect and sympathy remembered between Turkish and Anzac soldiers, an extraordinary human connection amid battle.
Akbaş Cemetery, remembering the courage and humanity of Turkish soldiers.
An Anzac soldier giving water to a Turkish soldier.
One of the trenches where the soldiers lived and fought for days.
It is impossible to read these accounts without being moved.
The sea around Çanakkale has a particularly beautiful colour—clear and peaceful, while the land around it carries so much history. Source cited in the original article: the Turkish Wikipedia entry on the Arıburnu campaign.
Arıburnu
Anzac
At the Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial, the Turkish flag fills me with pride. To me, this monument represents confidence in the future and the determination to defend the homeland even in the nation’s hardest moments, at an immense cost in lives.
Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial
May those who died rest in peace. Let us not forget how much we owe the generations before us.
The Trojan Horse
And finally, the Trojan Horse that has become a symbol of Çanakkale! I had always seen it in photographs, but seeing it close up felt quite different. It is certainly a stop I would recommend.