Gallipoli landings: Hundreds of Australians, New Zealanders attend dawn service in Türkiye

By Burak Akay and Tugba Altun

CANAKKALE, Türkiye (AA) - Hundreds of visitors from Australia and New Zealand gathered at the site of the Gallipoli campaign in western Türkiye on Tuesday for a dawn service.

The event marked the 108th anniversary of the first landing of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops on the Gallipoli (Gelibolu in Turkish) peninsula during a military campaign in World War I.

Nearly 2,000 Australians and New Zealanders made their trip to the former battlefields overlooking the Dardanelles Strait for the annual sunrise commemoration of the start of the eight-month campaign.

Participants spent the night at the site in sleeping bags and blankets in the cold, waiting for the ceremony to begin while watching documentaries and interviews about the Battle of Canakkale during World War I.

In the program that started at dawn, Australian Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh and New Zealand Defense Minister Andrew Little delivered speeches on the significance of the day.

The letter of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, to the families of foreign soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Canakkale was also read.

The unsuccessful eight-month campaign saw more than 44,000 British, Irish, French, Australian, New Zealand, Indian and Canadian troops, as well as nearly 87,000 Ottoman soldiers, killed.

The day is also commemorated in Australia and New Zealand as ANZAC Day and Gallipoli is seen as one of the defining events that ushered both countries towards nationhood.

The battle also forged links between Türkiye, which emerged as a modern state shortly after the war, and the ANZAC countries.