Turkey to commemorate 100th anniversary of Gallipoli campaign

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that his country will host international events on April 24 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign of World War I.

Erdogan said that representatives from about 50 countries, including heads of states and prime ministers, are expected to attend events in Canakkale, about 280 km southwest of Istanbul.

The president made the statement while addressing a meeting in the northwestern province of Canakkale, the venue of the planned events.

The Turkish government also announced earlier that the ceremonies to mark the 100th anniversary of the victory of Gallipoli will take place in Canakkale on March 18.

The Gallipoli campaign, also known as the Dardanelles campaign, was a battle of World War I that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire between April 25, 1915 and Jan. 9, 1916.

The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provides a sea route to what was then the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war.

Intending to secure it, Russia's allies Britain and France launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula with the eventual aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).

The naval attack was repelled and, after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign also failed and the invasion force was withdrawn to Egypt.

The campaign was one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war and a major Allied failure.

In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation's history: a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled.

The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the founding of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who first rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli. Endit