It was an earlier than normal morning breakfast and departure from lovely Canakkale, as we needed to board the 8:00 ferry across the water to the Gallipoli Peninsula...we had only a 5 minute drive from the hotel to the ferry terminal, and there were already tour buses in line planning the same trip. The ferries here and the terminal are not quite what I have become accustom to in BC...I owner what the Turk commuters would think if one of BC Ferry Queens sailed into their terminal one morning? lol
The simple ferry ride was only 20 minutes and quite uneventful, the weather was cooler and overcast and later in the morning we got some steady rain for only the second time in the entire 14 days in Turkey...the weather kinda worked well for what we were going to learn about and see in Gallipoli.
The Gallipoli Peninsula is well known from the First World War....and as I am not a strong student of WW1 history, it was all new to me and most interesting...especially as to what was going on so far away from our homeland, and as this conflict did not directly involve any Canadian or American troops, it certainly did include our allies.
As I have learned...The Allies in 1915 had been trying to get heavy warships through the Dardanelles to attack and control the very strategically located Istanbul. The various attacking war ships had been challenged by the Turkish sea mines and a few quickly succumbed and apparently sank within a few minutes...there was also heavy gunfire from the shore. Churchill had planned a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula, to destroy the shore batteries, and to form the beachhead for a land attack on Istanbul. The core of their attacking forces were the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, called (ANZAC). This land attempt was a huge failure, and the losses on all sides was high but especially with the young and inexperienced Anzacs. The troops landing on the beach faced a steep hill which was known to the allies as Hill 60 (Conk bahri Teppe) with a rugged wooded countryside. Even if the Anzacs had been able to dominate the high ground of the peninsula, it would have been easy for the Ottoman Turks to contain and control them in the brutal trench bayonet warfare here, and stationed at the narrow neck of this strategic peninsula....there were also guns ready for the Anzacs, on the Asian side of the Dardanelles.
I have included a good historical map that I found online with many more interesting details concerning this 1915 conflict...it helps to see some of the areas we visited on this tour, which of course are now beautiful memorial parks and natural waterfront landscape.
The Turks young officer was Mustafa Kemal, whose skill and bravery in Gallipoli helped them defeat the Anzac invaders. He rose through the ranks, and after the war, commanded the Turks in beating back a Greek Army that was attempting to enforce a League of Nations mandate that awarded Anatolia to Greece, (Greece had long been a Turkish colony and won its independence only a few decades previously). Mustafa Kemal became the very popular Kemal Ataturk, and soon after the first President of the new Republican Turkey. This victory certainly paved the way for a historic revolution to independence and away from the centuries old Ottoman rule. Many puzzling war questions for me including how did the Turks survive in hillside dugouts for over 200 days...how is it that Great Britain apparently took Istanbul for two years after all and in 1925, and then lost it...A little information, such as what I am blogging with, can be more troublesome than none? lol
If my brother-in-law is reading my travel blogs...I will have to quiz him a bit when we connect again, on this piece of more recent history dating to WW1, as Mark is our family army and war aficionado! :-)
During our rain filled visit to Gallipoli and while I was intrigued with this battle, it was very sobering for the Anzacs as the casualties were high but Turkey has respectfully provided this beautiful memorial at the very key locations for tourists from all over to visit and learn about.
There were over 36,000 troops lost in this 9 month campaign, and while 22,000 graves have been marked in 31 peninsula war cemeteries, only 9,000 were identified and the remaining are unknown and over 14,000 were never found! As it concerns those visitors from New Zealand and Australia, there is a large annual May memorial event that is so well attended that Turkey has had to recently issue a lottery draw to manage the amount of people coming to Gallipoli.
I was sharing an umbrella with Gabby from our tour group and she is a native New Zealander...this Gallipoli tour was obviously very moving for her and she was grateful to have been able to visit the sites and this important memorial to her fallen countrymen..as were we all, now that we are better informed.
Our long drive continued onward to Istanbul and the weather cleared up nicely...I was recalling how our amazing tour had only recently begun and now we were soon to be back at the hotel where we first met, and our Treasures of Turkey tour began...14 days earlier.
As we checked back into the Golden Horn Hotel and I no sooner got settled for the next couple nights...there was quite the commotion and protest coming from outside my fourth floor street side window. As I checked it was a very loud and boisterous group of largely Muslim Turks marching and chanting slogans in Turkish to what was being prompted for them to say by mobile loud speakers, and other marching section leaders. The overhead photo opportunities were great from my room as the window opened right in and I could lean out to catch the long line parading by endlessly with men and women for at least the next 3 hours...our hotel certainly was on an interesting street it seems? :-)
I was thinking with all of this going on and not knowing the meaning of their peaceful political march, that we were most certainly back in the big city of almost 20 million, the traffic thru the city was crazy and the landscape was endless with buildings of every vintage and description and people hustling everywhere. I sure am not a real big city guy at all, and sure enjoyed our smaller cities and seaside villages over the past weeks...much more my style!
Tonight was our final group dinner as some are leaving back for home very early the next morning...we walked to a lovely outdoor venue and good food, things were a little more solemn and quiet as we all knew it was farewell and normalcy was going to settle in for most of the group real soon.
Our bus driver was tipped by the group for all his amazing driving, which was as crazy as it needed to be but kept us all safe and he had to leave before dinner, so we bade him a big farewell.
Our very comitted guide Suleyman joined us as he often did and reminded us earlier of the photo competition he declared on day one. This involved each group member to collect their best pics of Attaturk and that of a traditional Turkish person or couple in a very natural pose or environment.
Well my photo submission of a Turkish couple while we visited Salt Lake won the nice souvenier gift that was provided and as I have some extraordinary pics of many locals so I am glad I picked a winner and Joanne of Calgary won with her category entry with a pic of an Attaturk statue...my pic is attached at the end of this blog update.
We provided a customary tip from each group member or couple with a personalized thank you card and presented the contents to Sulyman by Chuck, from Montana, on behalf of a very grateful group for a job very well done! Sulyman humbly accepted the envelope and enjoyed our tour and will collect all our contact information to share amongst the group along with some of his most favourite links to ancient historical places and information, we can enjoy further on our own.
Another long and another memorable day indeed...looking forward to my free day and last in Istanbul and Turkey, as Greece is now beckoning...enjoy and stand by for a last blog-bit concerning my Sunday in Istanbul and more local pics...
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