Türkiye held ceremonies on Wednesday to mark the 111th anniversary of its March 18, 1915 naval victory at Gallipoli, commemorating a pivotal World War One battle and honoring fallen soldiers.
The commemorations began at Cumhuriyet Square in the northwestern province of Çanakkale, where Defence Minister Yasar Guler and local officials laid wreaths at the Ataturk Monument.
A gold medal inscribed “Çanakkale is impassable,” awarded to the city by parliament in 1994 in honor of some 253,000 fallen soldiers, was ceremonially attached to the Turkish flag.
A 21-gun salute was fired from the Turkish navy corvette TCG Kinaliada in the Dardanelles, a strategic waterway at the centre of the Gallipoli campaign.
Foreign diplomats from countries including Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, whose troops fought in Gallipoli, attended the ceremony.
President Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement that Gallipoli was “not only a battle, but an epic of faith, sacrifice, patriotism and national unity.”
“The struggle fought at Gallipoli demonstrated that the Turkish nation would never relinquish its independence,” he said, adding that its legacy continues to inspire unity and resilience.
Known in Türkiye as the Battle of Çanakkale, the Gallipoli campaign was a major World War One operation in which Allied forces sought to seize control of the Dardanelles and capture Istanbul, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman forces, led in part by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, repelled the অভিযান after months of heavy fighting, in a campaign that resulted in significant casualties on both sides and became a turning point in shaping Turkish national identity.
The battle is also commemorated annually as Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand.
This year’s events are being held under the theme “The Sacrifice of a Nation, the Freedom of a Flag,” with a main ceremony on the Gallipoli peninsula attended by senior officials.
As part of the commemorations, tens of thousands of red and white tulips symbolizing the Turkish flag were planted around the martyrs’ memorial, while digital archival materials were made available online.