Gallipoli & Canakkale, Turkey 10/28/2006

Pictures are:  Dean & the minibus; monument of the country of Turkey, blood spilling from the location of the battle and battleships in the Aegean Sea; Capt. Ali Efe; Ali giving his speech by the ANZAC trench; Me on the Aegean Sea, Brighton Beach, mountainside at the beach; Janeen placing the rosemary in the child's bouquet; Janeen sitting on the ANZAC memorial; the ANZAC gravesite........We are up with the alarm @5:45 a.m. Down stairs before 6:30.  The hotel guy get sus coffee and tea.  The guy picking us up for the 4-day tour of Southeastern Turkey arrives on time, so we can't finish our drinks.  We leave the hotel and proceed to pick up 3 girls from New Zealand, Wendy from Australia, Marie from Australia and Mark & Angus, father & son, also from Australia.  We are the only nationality other than Australian or New Zealand on this tour.  The Australians and the New Zealanders are coming to Turkey often to see this battleground and burial site of their fore-fathers.  They were defending this site for the British and commanded by them to do so.  We head out of Istanbul driving south on the European side.  Dean from Liverpool is our guide and he works for Fez Travel.com, the travel company we are touring with.  The countryside is farm land and then pine forest.  We drive along the Marmara Sea heading for Gelibolu where a famous battle ground from World War I took place.  We stop for breakfast and I buy 2 Turkish coffees and a cake.  Back in the van and make another stop to pee.  There is a terrible zoo here with animals cramped in pens too small for them.  It was awful.  I get another coffee.  Reach the battleground area and we meet Capt. Ali Efe, whose grandfather died in this war and his grand uncle was severely injured.  He is retired from the Turkey Navy and quite a character who knows all details of this war.  Prior to arriving to the site Dean tells us that we have a very special treat because today Capt. Ali Efe is our guide.  The British, French and Russians were up against the Germans, Hungarians and Austrians.  Somehow 2 German ships make it into the Dardanelles, the strip of water from the Aegean Sea into the Marmara Sea.  They are supposedly allies to the Turks, so they are given the Turkish flag to fly.  They make it into the Black Sea because they are flying the Turkish flag and begin firing on the Russian side.  The Russians think it is the Turks because of the flag.  Meanwhile the British are after the German ships.  They enter the Dardanelles but hit the mines the Turks have placed since the German ships passed thru.  The Brits retreat and are back out in the Aegean Sea.  This is the first time the UK accepted naval defeat.  Now the French take the position to the south of the entrance to the Dardanelles and the British to the north side.  The Turks are defending their homeland and have repositioned in the high land above.  The British have told the Australian and New Zealand army to land in a cove north of where the British are.  They were supposed to be on the beach south of this cove and were misinformed by the British.  The ANZACs (Australia New Zealand Army Corp) are on the beach now and there are these high cliffs making it impossible to reach their enemy the Turks.  The ANZACs finally position themselves in bunkers high in the hills above the sea with the Turks a few meter in trenches across from the ANZACs.  This battle goes on for 240 days.  The Aussies and the Kiwis having very little supplies.  They were plagued with lice.  When they bathed in the sea, the Turks never attacked them. It was a gentleman's war!  Finally they realize they are dying for nothing and a truce begins.  First with the Turks sending them tobacco and the ANZACs sending the Turks chocolate.  The battle ended 12/15/1915.   Their independence day October 29, 1924, when Turkey became a Republic and the Sultans left for exile in France, 84 years ago.  We sit with Capt. Ali in the ANZAC trenches while he tells us his theory on what each side got out of the battle.  He sees Australia and New Zealand as a friend today.  He tells of the Turks a few years later winning their independence and his vision of Australia and New Zealand having their total independence from UK.  It is quite a speech!  I think the Aussies and the Kiwis are blown away!  We get back on the bus and go to the New Zealand memorial where there is a statue of a old man and his granddaughter hand-in-hand.  The child holds a bouquet of rosemary which is the "herb of remembrance".  He is telling the child the story of the battle up here.  The Turks visiting take a small piece of rosemary and place it in the bouquet as a gesture of remembrance.  Ali has Janeen do this.  I put a piece of my branch in the child's bouquet also.  The rosemary is growing wild on top of this hilly area.  We climb back in the bus and he has us all pick a small silver box held together with a rubber band out of a see thru plastic bag.  Each box contains old battlefield artifacts he has found.  I have a Turkish steel bullet and a small ball from a bomb in the box I select.  It is very impressive that Ali does this.  He also takes us down to the beach where we all look for a stone in a heart shape as a keepsake.  It is very lovely here along the Aegean Sea with the cliffs high above the beach and a very beautiful day.  I originally was not interested in seeing Gallipoli battlefield as I saw it as high interest for Turks, Aussies and Kiwis but after the experience and day spent with Capt. Ali, I'm sure glad I didn't miss it.  I also reflected on the day we were in Sydney and they were celebrating ANZAC Day.  Now I have the whole picture!!!!  We're all back on the minibus and take the ferry over to Canakkale and I get a double Turkish coffee en route.  The Turkish man making the coffee gives me his address to send a copy of the picture I take of him.  We have said goodbye to Marie, as she was only along for the Gallipoli part of the tour.  We are taken to the Yellow Rose Pension, our hotel in Canakkale.  Our room has 3 beds with a shared bath.  Not a bad place, clean but hostel-like.  I share my wine with Dean and he shares cigs with me.  We go to dinner with Dean and he and I have the daily special or meir.  They bring eggplant, tatzeki made with spinach and dill, beans and red peppers, all are great served with bread.  I get fish with tomato slices and rocket salad with wine I share with Dean.  It was a great meal.  Back to the room and write in the journal using my headlight for light.  To sleep........next day is Troy.........