FROM GALLIPOLI TO ARARAT

Hurriyet Daily news, Turkey
March 20 2015

by YUSUF KANLI

Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and Britain… What do they have in
common? This week not only these countries, but the entire world
remembered the heroes of the Gallipoli Campaign on the centenary of
the historic battle. Was it important only because of its “nation
building” effect on Australians and New Zealanders? Was it not the
Gallipoli Campaign which produced to the forefront a great Turkish
commander, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who only a couple of years later,
was to become the commander of the Turkish War of Liberation?

The fallen heroes of Gallipoli lay side-by-side today on what was
the battlefield of yesterday. Was it not Ataturk who in response
to a call for the repatriation of the remains declared those enemy
soldiers who lost their lives in brave battles against the Turks on
the Turkish homeland were no longer enemies but distinguished sons
of this nation, resting in peace and should not be disturbed?

Indeed Gallipoli has been very important for Australians and New
Zealanders or the Anzacs of yesterday. Through them, it has become very
important for Turks as well. Yes, it is sad to admit but the Turkish
state learned from them how to respect their fallen heroes beyond
solemn funerals. If not for the great efforts of the Australians and
New Zealanders who travel to Gallipoli by the tens of thousands every
year to respect their fallen heroes, forcing the Gallipoli cemeteries
to turn into some sort of “nationhood pilgrimage,” Turks would not
have begun to pressure their governments to take care of the Turkish
cemeteries, convert the battle grounds of the Gallipoli Campaign into
a national park and make the region easily accessible. Was it not sad
to read up until a few years ago stories of human remains erupting
from the fields of farms in the region?

Was not the Canakkale Monument – erected in memory of soldiers who
despite all odds staged a brave defense and did not allow enemies
to pass through the Canakkale Strait – in a desperate situation up
until few years ago? Now, not only the monument but also the museum
reflects the gratitude of the nation to the heroes of the campaign
that marked the first victory of this nation since the Balkan defeat
and thus helped revive national self-confidence. Could the under-armed
Turkey with almost no fighting power wage a War of Liberation without
the Mustafa Kemal of Canakkale or the self-confidence that campaign
produced?

How many Turks have walked through Canakkale or at least visited
the Canakkale Monument? Walking through the cemeteries or reading
through the last letters of fallen soldiers to their families, it
can sadly be seen those who fought on the Gallipoli front were not
only ethnic Turks, but representatives of all ethnicities throughout
the death-bed-ridden Ottoman Empire. Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Greeks,
Armenians and Assyrians are all resting in the Gallipoli cemeteries
side-by-side in peace…

The spirit of empire is long gone. Despite all the propaganda to the
contrary, republican Turkey, unfortunately, could not survive that
imperial multi-cultural heritage of cohabitation. Indeed, on its death
bed the empire did whatever possible to kill that culture anyhow. The
Armenian problem, for example, is a headache inherited from the
same period. How did it happen? Was it indeed a systematic genocide
campaign as Armenians claim with some political agenda today? Or,
was it a product of a web of reasons including but not restricted to
conditions of a decaying empire, gang activities and collaboration
with the enemy, making it compulsory to apply forced resettlement
and a civil war? Was it indeed a civil war-like situation that both
the Turks and Armenians lost heavily? Whatever the case, the minority
always suffers more in such ordeals than the majority. One should as
well try to understand the “nation building” role of the 1915 events
on the Armenian people.

Still, why can Turks and Armenians not do what the Turks and
Australians and New Zealanders did and convert a huge disaster for
all into a joint commemoration, a source of binding friendship? Why
is it that while Gallipoli was converted into some sort of festival
ground where enemy forefathers are remembered in equal pride, Turks
and Armenians still wage verbal fights for ownership on the image of
Mount Ararat?

Obviously, there is a need to explore and bring to light what indeed
happened to Armenians and Turks of the Ottoman Empire who lost
their lives in 1915. Rather than withdrawing from parliament the
protocols that included the creation of a joint history commission
of international historians to explore the 1915 events, the Armenian
president must have asked for parliamentary approval. Antagonism,
Turkish enmity and getting parliaments to adopt genocide resolutions
won’t settle this problem, Yerevan must talk with Ankara.

March/20/2015