Anzac: the Turkish Monuments on the Gallipoli Peninsula

As Anzac Day comes around once again, there is a tendency to forget that this is an equally important event from Turkey. Rightly or wrongly, the Ottoman Empire had been drawn into an alliance with Germany and the Astro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War, and for Britain, France and Russia, this posed a threat, both to Russia’s access to the Mediterranean and, hence, to the  rest of the World, and also  to Britain’s sea routes through the Suez Canal and, consequently to India, then the jewel in the British Crown. Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, had devised a plan, maybe ill-concieved but certainly ill-executed by the War Office, to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula which would give the Allies control of the Dardanelles and hopefully lead to the capture of Constantinople taking Turkey out of the War – what could be more simple? The plan did not take into account the tenacity of the Turkish defenders who were, after all, defending their homeland from foreign invaders, some of whom were from ‘the uttermost ends of the earth’.

Banners on the Grand Eceabat Hotel, Eceabat

 Turkish Martyrs Day, on the 18 March, commemorates the defeat of the first Anglo-French attempt to force the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915 using, purely, a naval force. Many of the Turkish forts were badly damaged, but the Allies lost 3 battleships sunk and 3 seriously damaged, before turning back and re-thinking their invasion plan, which saw the invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsular on the 25 April. The Turks had their hero on the 18 March. Corporal Seyit who, in the heat of battle after a shell elevator had been put out of action, single-handedly carried three 275kg shells to his gun which, in turn, badly damaged the ill-fated HMS Ocean. After the action, he was asked to lift a shell for a photograph but was unable to do so. He is then said to have uttered “If war breaks out again, Ill lift it again.”

Statue of Corporal Seyit with  a shell, Eceabat

 As one crosses the Dardanelles from Çanakkale, the Dur Yolcu Memorial, above the fort at Kilitbahir, can be seen. An image of a Turkish soldier holding a firearm, points to words by Necmettin Halil, a Turkish poet, The words translated mean:
                                   Traveller halt!
                                   The soil you tread
                                   Once witnessed the end of an era.
This is a reference to the many soldiers who lie buried on the Peninsular and the end of an era, probably refers to the Otoman Empire of which the Gallipoli Campaign was one of the last major battles before the Empire finally collapsed.

The Dur Yolcu Memorial overlooking the Dardanelles

 The ferry from Çanakkale arrives at Eceabat on the European shore of the Dardanelles, the town closest to the Gallipoli Battlefields. On disembarking attention is drawn by a very large, detailed memorial to the bloody battles fought on the peninsular. The memorial is in several parts. There is a large collage of sculpted images of soldiers, both Turkish and Anzacs, topped by Mustafa Kemal, the Turkish commander, who, as Kemal Atatürk, became the ‘Father of modern Turkey’, a weeping woman, symbolising the grief for the battle-dead,  sits beneath. There is a fascinating representation of both the Turkish and Australian trenches, complete with sculpted figures of soldiers in action as well as the dead and dying, all in interesting detail. Maps along the pavement show the Peninsular and where the important battles were fought. Instructive as well as a memorial.

Details of the large Gallipoli War Memorial at Eceabat

 Near Cape Hellas, on Hisalık Hill, is the Çanakkale Martyrs Monument, a huge monolithic structure of four huge columns topped by a large concrete slab.  Friezes of battle scenes decorate each of the four columns and a large Turkish flag adorns the bottom of the capping slab. In the shadow of the Monolith are other memorials, particulalrly to Atatürk, and graves of the Ottoman soldiers who fell in the defending their Homeland. The Çanakkale Martyrs Monument is a prominent landmark seen from across the Dardanelles and from much of the southern Gallipoli Peninsular.

The monolithic central feature of the Çanakkale Martyrs Monument

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

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Franz Josef, a Landscape on the Move

I watched with amazement, on a news clip on my iphone, as the one-lane bridge at Franz Josef washed away in the flooded Waiho River. It was only a week before that I had crossed this bridge with a coach load of British tourists. I had commented at the time that the river was very low, but it could rise very quickly. I was able to show my clients, before they left New Zealand, the destruction of the bridge on my iphone.

The bridge over the Waiho River at Franz Josef, just a week before it was washed away in a flood, March 2019

This photo was taken several years ago when the Waiho was in flood. Note how high the river is

When the river is in flood, large chunks of glacial ice tumble down the river along with the river boulders.

Franz Josef is a small tourist village on New Zealand’s South Island West Coast. The town takes it’s name from the nearby Glacier, named after the 19th century Emperor of Austria-Hungary by the German traveller and geologist, Julius von Haast. Along with the nearby Fox Glacier, these two icy rivers are a major tourist attraction.

The Franz Josef Glacier as it was in March 2008

Climate change has, of course, taken its toll on these two Glaciers over the last few years. I first visited both the Franz Josef and the Fox Glaciers in 1975, when they were in retreat. Then, during the 90s, both Glaciers advanced spectacularly, and I did read a report that the eruption of Mt Pinatuba in the Philippines was partially responsible. In this report it stated that the large amount of ash pushed into the atmosphere by the volcano, cooled the average temperature in this part of the world by only about half a degree Celsius, but it was enough to increase the snowfall in the glaciers’ névé areas to push these rivers of ice forward.

The névé, or snow catchment area of the Fox Glacier

 During this period of advance I led many groups to Westland where a hike on the Fox Glacier was an included highlight. This was a most popular inclusion as most of my clients had never been on a glacier before. The Fox was our preferred Glacier and for a time access was through the surrounding stunted rainforest which we had to hike through before dropping down onto the glacier ice. A unique experience.

Hiking through the stunted temperate rainforest before dropping down onto the Fox Glacier 

Each time I visited both the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, things could be different. Sometimes rain had washed out the access track, or ice movements had altered the access points to the ice. It was an ever-moving landscape with no two trips being the same. If the access road to the Fox was washed out, which was not uncommon, my groups would hike up to, and onto, the Franz Josef Glacier. This was usually considered a bit more difficult and was certainly steeper.

A group hiking on the Fox Glacier 

Among the ice crevasses & pinnacles of the Fox Glacier 2008

The two glaciers reached their peak advance in 1998. From 1999 until 2003, there was a recession of the glaciers which soon became noticeable, then there was a further advance until 2008. Since then both Glaciers have receded, and the amount of melt has been rapid. Hikes onto the glacial ice can now only be done using helicopters, and the Franz Josef has disappeared from view from Sentinel Rock, which used to be a main viewing platform for non-hikers.

A large ice cave was visible from the main access track to the Fox Glacier in 2007

A large slip has cut all access to the Fox Glacier, and now the Waiho River bridge has been destroyed, although this is being replaced and should reopen within the next few days, restored the main highway between Franz Josef and Fox Glacier and on through the Haast Pass to Wanaka and Queenstown. These recent events have most definitely emphasized how much this really is a landscape on the move.

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

Travel books by the author available from Amazon Books