Mustafa Kemal Ataturk


Kemal Ataturk was the highest ranking Turkish general in the theatre when the Allies landed. Technically he was under the command of Liman von Sanders but in reality wielded huge authority. Indeed, it was his decisive decision to launch an immediate counter-attack to the Allied landings, without receiving orders from von Sanders, that undoubtedly saved the situation for the Ottoman Turks and consigned the Allies to a long, hard fought campaign.

In the 1930s on the occasion of the first formal visit of families who lost loved ones at Gallipoli he gave a masterful and compassionate speech seeking reconciliation between the previous foes: >Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.


The Gallipoli Campaign


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by Stephen Luscombe