Swiss police cancel commemoration event for 102nd anniversary of Battle Of Gallipoli

ISTANBUL

Swiss police cancelled an event celebrating the 102nd anniversary of the naval victory of the Ottomans against the mighty Allied forces and commemorating thousands who lost their lives during the Gallipoli Campaign, saying it could disrupt public order on March 17.

The event named after the well-known slogan "Gallipoli is Impassable" was scheduled for March 18 in Basel city in northwest Switzerland, expecting at least 500 attendees. Turkish singers Mustafa Yıldızdoğan and Nejla Çakmakçı were also planned to perform at the event.

The ANTIFA group had warned the Swiss canton that if they did not cancel the event, they would perform a demonstration against Basel police and 'resort to anything' to prevent the event from happening.

The Swiss-Turkish Federation in a press release criticized these 'unfounded' reports in Swiss media, saying that they could not accept such biased and presumptuous claims.

Following recent bans on Turkish ministers in the Netherlands and Germany, the Zurich city council demanded that the federal government cancel the meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu scheduled on March 12. Amid an escalating row with the Netherlands, Çavuşoğlu did not attend the meeting in Switzerland.

Turkey will commemorate its fallen on March 18 on the 102nd anniversary of the Ottomans' World War I victory over Allied fleets attempting to break through the Strait of Dardanelles in the northwestern province of Çanakkale.

The 1915 battle took place in the Dardanelles Strait in Çanakkale's Gallipoli district.