Thousands mark 93rd anniversary of Gallipoli battle

The dawn ceremony marks the occasion of the first landings of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at the Gallipoli peninsula in the ill-fated allied campaign to take control of the Dardanelles Strait from the Ottoman Empire.

Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, New Zealand Air Force Commander Gen. Graham Lintott, New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Turkish officials participated in the solemn service.

Addressing the gathering Lintott said, "We have gathered here to show respect to those who died or were injured in Gallipoli," where more than 30,000 Australians and New Zealanders lost their lives in the battle.

Fitzgibbon said they admired the courage, responsibility and sacrifices made by all soldiers regardless of the uniforms they were wearing. Fitzgibbon also paid tribute to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who at the time led the Ottoman forces as a young lieutenant colonel and who eight years later become the founder of modern Turkey.

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters said that the Turkish defense in the face of the international allied forces was heroic, "we are gathering here every year to show that we will never forget those heroes."Â

Turkish soldiers recited, in Turkish and English, Ataturk's memorable message to the mothers of foreign soldiers killed at Gallipoli: "Your sons have now become our sons... They are now lying in the soil of a friendly country."

The national anthems of Australia, New Zealand and Turkey were played after prayers and officials from the three countries laid wreaths at Anzac Cove.

Each year, thousands of people, many of them Australians and New Zealanders, travel to the battlefields in northwestern Turkey on Anzac Day, the anniversary of the April 25, 1915, the start of the campaign.

Anzacs, Australian and New Zealand forces, formed the backbone of a 200,000-man, British led army that landed at Gelibolu in an attempt to take control of the Turkish straits and capture Istanbul. The Turks held strong for more than eight months, eventually forcing the allies to retreat.

Nearly one million soldiers fought in the trench warfare at Gelibolu. The allies recorded 55,000 killed in action, 10,000 missing and 21,000 deaths from disease. Turkish casualties were estimated at 250,000.

Photo: AA