Walking road in Gallipoli battlefield to open to visitors
ÇANAKKALE
In order to mark the Gallipoli Campaign, in which the Turks won a great victory during World War I, the route called “Mustafa Kemal Road” will soon be opened to visitors in the region.
Within the scope of the works carried out on the walking routes in the historical area where the Gallipoli Campaign took place, the route starting from the Shrapnel Valley Cemetery in the Anzac Cove region ends at Lone Pine region.
Mustafa Kemal Road also includes foreign cemeteries in the region. With the route aiming to provide detailed information about both the Turkish and Anzac sides, it is also planned to provide visitors with experiences inside the front line.
Though the total length of the walking route is 20 kilometers, it is expected to be put into service with two alternative routes of 9 and 15 kilometers.
The road, which includes valleys and hills rising just above the land coastline, offers visitors the opportunity to travel in a natural environment as it was built without disturbing the texture of the area.
Tens of thousands of soldiers died in one of the world’s most fierce battles 107 years ago in the Gallipoli Campaign in Ottoman Türkiye during World War I.
Victory against the Allied forces boosted the morale of the Turkish side, which then went on to wage a war of independence between 1919 and 1922, and eventually formed a republic in 1923 from the ashes of the old empire.
The Gallipoli Campaign aimed to secure a naval route from the Mediterranean Sea to Istanbul through the Dardanelles and knock the Ottomans out of the war. The April 25, 1915, landings marked the start of a fierce battle that lasted eight months.
The allies failed to reach their goal in the face of Ottoman resistance.
Gallipoli is considered to be an important turning point in the history of modern Türkiye. It was at Gallipoli that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk rose to prominence as a commander of the Turkish forces and went on to lead Türkiye’s War of Independence and found the Turkish Republic.