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‘Çanakkale is impassable’
‘Çanakkale is impassable’
A battle with only bayonets. Maybe 30 steps far away from the enemy. No rifles, no artillery, no proper arms. Only scarce sources and morale force and, of course, a great commander to make all this possible, Mustafa Kemal.
These are what the Turkish army had when they fought against the victorious Allies in Çanakkale.
For many Turks, the Çanakkale Victory carries immense meaning. The battles in Çanakkale were like no other. Under the command of Mustafa Kemal, not even a handful of brave soldiers defeated the world’s super powers.
“I am not ordering you to fight, I am ordering you to die,” Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, famously told soldiers at the battlefield.
The outcomes of the Çanakkale victory did not only change the fate of the war, but also brought forth a leader for Turkey, who would later transform what was left of the Ottoman Empire into a bright, modernized nation.
For the Turkish army, the battle was a matter of self-defense. For the victorious Allies, it was a dead-end they entered to control the sea route from Europe to Russia during the First World War.
Better known in the West as the “Gallipoli Campaign,” the ensuing land warfare lasted from April 1915 to January 1916 and ended with the Allies’ complete withdrawal from the area.
After a number of British and French capital ships were either sunk or damaged, however, the Allies were forced to abandon the naval campaign. The Ottomans’ initial naval victory in March was soon followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula.
The March 18, 1915 victory gave the country a massive morale boost that enabled it to wage a war of independence and eventually, in 1923, form a republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.
Around 1 million troops, including many Australians and New Zealanders, participated in the trench warfare in Gallipoli, which is regarded as a defining moment in the history of the Turkish people, as well as part of the foundations of a sense of national identity for Australia and New Zealand.
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