Anzacs remember fallen soldiers at dawn ceremony in Çanakkale

ÇANAKKALE - Doğan News Agency

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Visitors from Australia and New Zealand commemorated the 98th anniversary of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps’ (ANZAC) landing on Çanakkale’s Gallipoli peninsula as part of the Battle of Çanakkale during the First World War, with around 5,000 Anzacs attending a dawn service in Çanakkale yesterday.
The attendees prayed for their ancestors killed in the battle in a ritual held on Arıburnu.

New Zealand Defense Minister Jonathan Coleman, Australia Veterans’ Affairs Minister Warren Snowdon, Australian Ambassador to Turkey Ian Biggs, Australia Air Force Commander Gen. Mark Binskin, as well as many soldiers from Australia and New Zealand were present at the traditional dawn ceremony.

Çanakkale’s deputy governor Alper Faruk Bingöl was also in attendance to represent Turkey.

“It is a place you have never been to before, but at the same time you have grown up with. It is a place of sadness, but a place of great pride,” Coleman said regarding Çanakkale.

“The war was so severe that the graves of half of those who died are still unknown,” said Snowdon.

A person holding both Turkish and Australian citizenship interrupted Snowdon’s speech, before being detained by gendarmerie forces.

The Battle of Çanakkale took place at the Turkey’s Gelibolu peninsula from April 1915 to January 1916, during the First World War.

Nearly 1 million soldiers fought in the trench warfare at Gelibolu. Turkish casualties were estimated at around 250,000.