UK: Fallen soldiers of Gallipoli Battle remembered

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - A ceremony in central London on Thursday commemorated the tens of thousands of soldiers who died in one of the world's most ferocious battles 104 years ago in the Gallipoli Campaign in Ottoman Turkey during the World War I.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson and Turkey’s Ambassador to the U.K. Umit Yalcin as well as representatives from the Royal family and the army attended the ceremony at the Gallipoli Cenotaph.

After a moment of silence, wreaths have been laid at the Cenotaph.

A commemoration service was also held at the Westminster Abbey.

The year 2019 marks the 104th anniversary of the battle in the Canakkale (Dardanelles) Strait in Canakkale's Gelibolu district, which served as a turnaround in favor of the Turks fighting in World War I against the then Allied Forces.

The Allied Forces started their attack on March 18 -- the day commemorated as Canakkale Naval Victory Day -- but the waters were filled with a network of mines laid by Ottoman vessels.

The events leading up to the momentous battle started in February 1915, when Britain and France decided to launch the Gallipoli campaign to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war as quickly as possible by reaching and capturing its capital, Istanbul.

On April 25, 1915, nine months into the World War I, Allied soldiers landed on the shores of the Gelibolu peninsula. The troops were there as part of a plan to open Canakkale Strait on Turkey's Aegean coast to Allied fleets, allowing them to threaten the then-Ottoman capital, Istanbul.

The Allied Forces, however, encountered strong and courageous resistance from the Turks and the campaign turned out to be a costly failure. Tens of thousands of Turkish nationals and soldiers died, along with tens of thousands of Europeans, plus around 7,000 - 8,000 Australians and nearly 3,000 New Zealanders.

Victory against the Allied forces boosted the morale of the Turkish side, which then went on to wage a war of independence between 1919 and 1922, and eventually formed a republic in 1923 from the ashes of the old empire.