Ring of steel around Anzac Cove (Australia and New Zealand commemorate the 100th ANZAC Day)

news.com.au ^ | 25th April 2015

[naturalman1975]

IT should surprise no one that Gallipoli is a hard place to get to.

AFTER all, that's the reason 10,500 Australians and Kiwis are here: to commemorate a disastrous loss for the Allied forces who tried to invade this stony strip of land a century ago.

Any geographic difficulties posed by the Gallipoli peninsula, however, are only amplified by the enormous security machine that squeezed tighter in recent days and now has clamped shut on Anzac Eve.

.....

The steel security curtain extends far beyond the national park where the famous Gallipoli cemeteries are: the nearby ferry port towns of Eceabat and Kilitbahir are in complete lockdown.

Police cars are on every corner, armed troops walk the streets and watch from rooftops. Fighter planes scream past high overhead.

.....

Australian Federal Police officers have been on the ground in Turkey for months, while a no-fly zone is in place and all non-naval vessels will be stopped from approaching the coast.

.....

Security has been a huge issue for this Anzac event, believed to be the largest gathering of English-speaking people in a non English-speaking country anywhere in the world.

At every news conference leading up to Anzac Day, media have asked about security concerns.

Out among the battlefield cemeteries, feelings have been mixed: one woman says she feels completely safe, another man says he hid a story about recent terror attacks in Istanbul from his wife to stop her worrying.

Australia's Gallipoli services director Tim Evans has repeatedly said the peninsula will be one of the safest places to be in Turkey on Anzac Day.

When people have their hearts and minds fixed firmly on the dawn service, it's hoped no one will have to notice the machinery that has made all this possible.

[naturalman1975]

It is just past 1am on April 25, 2015 on the east coast of Australia. This is the most sacred day in the national calendars of Australia and New Zealand. The day we remember those who have died in the service of our countries in war. The day our nations were baptised in blood - 100 years ago today. 25th April 1915. Both nations had only recently become independent of the UK - Australia in 1901, and New Zealand in 1907, and the First World War was the first time our troops went into battle representing their own countries (both had sent troops as part of British forces in the past), and the Gallipoli landings were the first large scale action they had seen (small forces from both Australia and New Zealand had captured some German dependencies in the Pacific during 1914). ANZAC stands for 'Australian and New Zealand Army Corps', the name of the force that landed at Gallipoli. There have been terrorist threats in recent days - an attack on ANZAC Day commemorations would be an attack on the heart and soul of our nations.

Major parades of veterans (from later wars - obviously there are none left from the First World War) occur in all major cities, and quite a few smaller ones as well.

[Tennessee Nana]

My family lived in New Zealand..

My mother lost uncles at Gallipoli and a brother in Italy during WWII...

We had a photo of Mom’s uncle who was wearing a fez...

[C19fan]

I think about Ataturk’s speech in 1934:

Those heroes that shed their blood

And lost their lives.

You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore, rest in peace.

There is no difference between the Johnnies

And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side

Here in this country of ours,

You, the mothers,

Who sent their sons from far away countries

Wipe away your tears,

Your sons are now lying in our bosom

And are in peace

After having lost their lives on this land they have

Become our sons as well”.

[originalbuckeye]

The movie ‘Gallipoli’ broke my heart. Prayers for all those who sacrificed, trying to make the world a better place.

[Buttons12]

Canakkale...the nearby ferry port towns of Eceabat...

FWIW, this is the area of Abydos and Sestos, where lived Hero and Leander. He swam the Hellespont to see her, drowned en route.

Byron, a better swimmer, later reenacted the journey.

[dfwgator]

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - The Pogues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqN1glz4JY

[MeganC]

My sincere condolences and respects to your nations on this anniversary of such a profound sacrifice.

- Megan

[naturalman1975]

Yes - Atatürk was a great man in many ways. It’s a pity the Muslim world hasn’t had more like him. They could have dragged all of it into modernity. Unfortunately even in Turkey, his influence was not strong enough to change anything.

That speech was truly remarkable in its grace considering he was talking about men who had invaded his country.

[notdownwidems]

Very nice sentiments; expect the current Turks to dig their dead bodies up and desecrate them, jihadi-style

[skeeter]

I'm envious that something like Churchill's Dardanelles Campaign still receives the attention and the sacrifices made during it the respect they do in Aus & NZ.

We don't teach our kids anything that might inspire such patriotism. Our progeny think absolutely nothing worth learning - and certainly nothing good - happened before the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

[JoeFromSidney]

All this security is new. It wasn't there when I visited Gallipoli in 1999 on what was, by coincidence, ANZAC Day.

[naturalman1975]

Very nice sentiments; expect the current Turks to dig their dead bodies up and desecrate them, jihadi-style

Things could change in the future, of course, but at the moment at least, the Turks still show a profound reverence and respect for the dead at Gallipoli.