Ambassadors’ Conference in 2015 to commemorate Battle of Gallipoli

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Turkey’s annual Ambassadors’ Conference would take place in the western Çanakkale province next year, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli.

Speaking during parliamentary budget talks about the Foreign Ministry on Dec. 14, Çavuşoğlu said a “meaningful commemoration” of the Battle of Gallipoli was being organized, including holding a part of the 2015 Ambassadors’ Conference in Çanakkale.

“We are organizing the [commemoration] of the Battle of Gallipoli in a meaningful and positive way. We are also inviting the countries that were involved in World War I or were affected by it to take part. We will also hold part of the 7th Ambassadors’ Conference that will take place in January in 2015 in Çanakkale,” said Çavuşoğlu.

Gallipoli is a district of the Çanakkale province, which is also home to the Dardanelles. The heroic resistance in Gallipoli from 1915-1916 by the Ottoman army during World War I is known in Turkey as the “Çanakkale Wars.”

Çavuşoğlu also referred to the 100th anniversary of the forced migration of Ottoman Armenians, which led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and which many historians believe amounted to genocide, saying Turkey “will deliver messages of peace and tolerance to the world in Çanakkale on April 24, 2015.”