Gallipoli

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For other uses, see Gallipoli (disambiguation).

Gallipoli, (Greek: Καλλίπολις) called Gelibolu in modern Turkish, is a town in northwestern Turkey. The name derives from the Greek Kallipolis, meaning "Beautiful City". It is located on the Gallipoli Peninsula (Gelibolu Yarimadasi), with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. (The Gallipoli Peninsula was known as "Chersonesus Thracica" in ancient times. The penninsula which was inhabitated by the Byzantines was gradually conquered by the Ottomans starting from 13th century onwards until the 15th. The Greeks living there were allowed to continue their everyday life. The penninsula didn't see any more wars up until the first world war when the English allies trying to find a way to reach their troubled ally in the east, Russia decided to try to obtain pasage to the east. The Ottomans set up defensive fortifications along the peninsula with German help.

Battle of Gallipoli

Main article: Battle of Gallipoli

In Australia, New Zealand and Newfoundland, Gallipoli is the name given to the Allied Campaign on the peninsula during World War I, usually known in Britain as the Dardanelles Campaign and in Turkey as the Battle of Çanakkale. This was an attempt to push through the Dardanelles and capture Istanbul. On April 25, 1915, as part of an allied force of British and French troops, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed at a small bay at the western end of the Peninsula (today officially called Anzac Cove). The campaign was relatively sucsessful for the Turks and the Germans and a catastophe for Russia which eventually was lead to civil war partly due to the unsucsessfull Gallipoli campaign. The Anzacs evacuated on December 19, 1915 and the other elements of the invasion force a little later. There were around 180,000 Allied casualties and 220,000 Turkish casualties. This campaign has become a "founding myth" for both Australia and New Zealand, and Anzac Day is still commemorated as a holiday in both countries. Many mementos of the Gallipoli campaign can be seen in the museum at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia and at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in Auckland, New Zealand. This campaign also put a dent in the armour of Winston Churchill who then the war minister had commisioned the plans to invade the dardanells. He talks about this campaign vividly in his memoirs.

The Gallipoli campaign also gave an important boost to the career of Mustafa Kemal, who was at that time a little-known army commander. Kemal exceeded his authority and contravened orders in order to halt the Allied advance and eventually drive them back. He went on to found the modern Turkish state after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Gallipoli is the subject of a 1981 movie directed by Peter Weir and starring Mel Gibson.