Thousands of Australians, New Zealanders and Turks gathered on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula on Thursday ahead of the 100th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of World War One. Security was especially tight as the former adversaries now face a common threat from Islamist militant violence.
A century ago, thousands of soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) struggled ashore on a narrow beach at Gallipoli at the start of an ill-fated campaign that would claim more than 130,000 lives. The area has become a site of pilgrimage for visitors who honour their nations' fallen in graveyards halfway around the world on ANZAC Day every April 25.
The centenary is expected to see the largest ever commemoration, with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Britain's Prince Charles leading the ceremonies. "The 100th anniversary is a very important moment because we're at a time now where this campaign ceases to be about memory and slides into history," said Bruce Scates, chair of history and Australian studies at Melbourne's Monash University.
"All of the veterans have died, those with any living memory of the Great War have gone," said Scates, the grandson of a Gallipoli veteran who has been advising the Australian government on how to mark the centenary. Although the Allied forces also included British, Irish, French, Indians, Gurkhas and Canadians, Gallipoli has become particularly associated with the Australians and New Zealanders, marking a point where they came of age as nations less beholden to Britain. Turkey and Australia now find themselves allies in a modern-day struggle.
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