Turkey Hosts Gallipoli Ceremonies 100 Years On

Turkey hosted leaders from World War I's former Allied powers Friday to honor the tens of thousands killed at the Battle of Gallipoli 100 years ago in one of the most futile yet emblematic campaigns of the conflict.

The ceremonies were being held the same day as centenary commemorations for the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and several world leaders had opted to attend the events in Yerevan instead.

The Battle of Gallipoli ended with up to half a million casualties and achieved little but ended up playing a crucial role in forming the national consciousness both of modern Turkey and the young nations of Australia and New Zealand.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believed the "message of peace" delivered from there was important, adding that: "The world needs this message more than ever."

"I repeat once more on behalf of all -- before the memory of hundreds of thousands of young men lying in this small peninsula -- our determination to work to let peace and prosperity prevail in the world," he told the ceremony.

Leaders including Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia, New Zealand Premier John Key, as well as the heir to the British throne Prince Charles and his son Prince Harry are joining the ceremonies at cemeteries on the Gallipoli peninsula.

While Turkey has boasted that about two dozen heads of state are attending, several key leaders including French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin are instead at the Armenia commemorations.

Armenia says some 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a campaign of genocide by the Ottoman authorities during World War I. But Turkey has always rejected the term genocide, while acknowledging that massacres occurred.

The juxtaposition of the dates of the Armenian killings and Gallipoli campaign has aroused heavy emotions, with Armenians accusing Turkey of shifting the main Gallipoli commemoration event forwards by one day to deliberately overshadow Yerevan ceremonies.

- Helped forge national identities -

On Saturday, the focus in Gallipoli was to be on the dawn services to remember the estimated 8,700 Australian and 2,800 New Zealand soldiers who lost their lives thousands of miles from home in a sacrifice that helped forge their national identity and is still remembered as Anzac Day on April 25.

The nine-month battle saw German-backed Ottoman forces resist Allies -- including Australian, British, French, Irish, Newfoundland, New Zealand and Gurkha troops -- trying to seize the peninsula on the western edge of Turkey to break through to take Constantinople and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war.

The final surviving Allied troops would be evacuated from Gallipoli in January 1916 after a campaign that became a symbol of wasteful failure in World War I, with many killed by disease as well as fighting.

Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders have made the long journey to join the tributes to their forefathers, milling around the ferry docks where souvenir sellers offered scarves and T-shirts promoting the modern day friendship between the ex-foes.

"It means so much to come back and give them the respect they (the troops) deserve," said Marjorie Stevens, 87, from Adelaide in Australia, who had been planning the long trip for 12 months.

"It's hard to keep back the tears and it's so important to keep the link to the past."

Estimates of the numbers killed in the conflict differ, but most sources say at least 45,000 soldiers lost their lives on the Allied side and a higher number of around 86,000 on the Ottoman side.

- 'Virtue of the enemy' -

"Our friendship proves that when the battle is over, when the wounds have healed and when the ground has cooled, warriors can see their enemies’ virtue," Abbott said at a conference in Istanbul ahead of the ceremonies.

World War I ended in defeat for the Ottoman forces and their German allies and the over half millenium-old empire would disintegrate soon after.

But the battle is of huge importance for Turks as the troops' resistance helped lead to the creation of the modern Turkish state in 1923.

A key Ottoman commander at Gallipoli was a lieutenant colonel named Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk, who would emerge as the founder of the Turkish Republic and who remains its national icon.

The Gallipoli land campaign began on April 25 when the Allied troops launched their land attacks on the beaches of the peninsula. Armenians mark the start of the massacres on April 24 when Armenian leaders and intellectuals were rounded up in Constantinople.