Thousands attend Gallipoli ceremonies

Prince Charles read a sombre psalm as some 20,000 people prayed and sang hymns at dawn today in Canakkale, Turkey, to mark the 90th anniversary of the devastating First World War Gallipoli campaign.

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

This year’s visitors included Prince Charles, Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Charles read a psalm assuring God’s protection from harm before he and the other dignitaries laid wreathes at a battle monument. A bagpiper played hymns while a chaplain prayed for peace and for those who suffered because of war.

Many Australians and New Zealanders see the campaign as a crucible of their countries’ nationhood.

“Those who fought here changed forever the way we saw ourselves,” Howard explained. “They bequeathed Australia with a lasting sense of national identity.”

“It was here that our young nations began to come of age,” said Clark.

Anzacs, as the Australian and New Zealand forces who took part are known, formed the backbone of a 200,000-man, British-led army that landed at Gallipoli in an attempt to take control of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and capture Istanbul, 180 miles to the east.

But poor co-ordination between the Allies’ naval and ground forces gave the Turkstime to reinforce their positions. The British-led force ran into stiff resistance and ended up being evacuated from the peninsula in January 1916.

“I had to make a pilgrimage here,” said 22-year-old Ben Hutchinson, who wrapped himself in an Australian flag. Gallipoli “was the first real bonding of Australia as a country. It’s something that formed our identity.”

Angela Taylor, 27, from Bluff, New Zealand, said her grandfather fought in the campaign and said her participation in today’s ceremony was “one way of paying respect to him”.

Nearly 1 million soldiers fought in the trench warfare at Gallipoli. The Allies recorded 55,000 killed in fighting at Gallipoli with 10,000 missing and 21,000 dead of disease. Turkish casualties were estimated at 250,000.

In Sydney, Australia, thousands of Australians crammed Martin Place in the pre-dawn hours today to commemorate the Gallipoli anniversary at the annual Anzac Day celebration.

This year, organisers of the Sydney event erected a massive video screen so thousands of spectators could watch the proceedings.

“The Australian people took a solemn pledge never to forget those who paid a sacrifice so that we might survive and prosper,” said New South Wales state Premier Bob Carr at the Sydney service. “By turning out in these numbers we have confirmed that Australians kept their word.”