A Call from the Dardanelles:The Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli and Transnational Collective

Memory

By

Jill E ChancellorMay 2017

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in History

Dual-Degree Program in History and Archives Management Simmons CollegeBoston, Massachusetts

The author grants Simmons College permission to include this thesis in its Library and to make it available to the academic community for scholarly

purposes.

Submitted by

___________________

Jill E Chancellor

Approved by:

__________________ ___________________

Dr. Stephen Ortega (Thesis Advisor) Dr. Jeannette Bastian (Second Reader)

(Add table of contents and Acknowledgements)

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Chapter 1: Born in battle

In the early hours of April 25, 1915, tens of thousands of Allied soldiers were preparing

to land on the shores of the Gallipoli Peninsula (part of modern-day Turkey) as part of the

Dardanelles Campaign that was meant defeat the Ottoman Empire leaving their German allies all

alone. The leading units of this landing were made up of the Australian and New Zealand Army

Corps, who came to be known as the ANZAC.1 One hundred years after this landing, over

10,000 Australians, New Zealanders, and Turks all gathered at Gallipoli to commemorate the

100th anniversary of this landing. Also in attendance at this service were the Australian Prime

Minister Tony Abbott, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Turkish President Recep Tayyip

Erdogan, as well as British delegates Prince Charles and Prince Harry. While the services held at

Gallipoli are on the former battlegrounds in the midst of the remains of the fallen soldiers, Anzac

Day is celebrated all across Australia and New Zealand each year with up to hundreds of

thousands attending the yearly commemorations and services.

Although Anzac Day became an official holiday by the 1920s to commemorate and

mourn all those lost at Gallipoli and all other battles fought in World War I, as time passed and

Australia became involved in other conflicts such as World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, Anzac

Day became the day to remember all those that fought in the Australian armed forces. The day

became one that not only commemorated those that were lost, but celebrated their spirit and

courage that came to be integral to the Australian national identity. Although this national

identity was being forged around Anzac Day and the so-called Anzac Spirit, the national itself

began to change and evolve thanks to immigration, and changing views on war itself. The

holiday was created initially for Australians and New Zealanders, there were always stories from

1 C.E.W. Bean, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, Volume 1 the Story of Anzac: The First Phase (Sydney: Angus and Robertson LTD, 1921), 2-3.

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the soldiers at Gallipoli that lent to a shared experience with the Turks. The two nations were

never hostile towards each other and have maintained various ties throughout the last century,

which has included immigration pacts, memorials, and academic dialogues. By looking at

sources such as newspapers, government documents, and other publications surrounding the

evolution of the Anzac Day commemorations, this paper will trace the ways Australia has

constructed this transnational collective memory with Turkey and how the creation of the Dawn

Service at Gallipoli serves as the physical embodiment of this relationship. Australia and Turkey

have worked together in various capacities, such as being allies in overseas conflicts after World

War I, a major migration pact, and the Dawn Service. But unlike being allies in war and making

various pacts, the Dawn service is an annual occurrence (even with the threat of possible terrorist

attacks), which requires a certain amount of understanding of each other’s sentiments regarding

the battle and continuous cooperation.

Collective memory is often confined to smaller groups, and when one looks at two

nations whose first interaction with each other was on opposite sides of the battlefield, it seems

that there would not be any middle ground between the two of them. But in Maurice

Halbwachs’s seminal work, On Collective Memory, there’s a passage that helps to give a

possible insight into this connection between Australia and Turkey. Halbwachs states,

“…each family has its proper mentality, its memories which it alone commemorates and its secrets that are revealed only to its members. But these memories, …consist not only of a series of individual images of the past. They are at the same time models, examples, and elements of teaching. They express the general attitude of the group; they not only reproduce its history but also define its nature and its qualities and weaknesses…. Even though this framework is constituted by facts that can be dated…it partakes of the nature of those collective notions that cannot be placed in a particular place or at a definitive moment, and that seem to dominate the course of time.”2

2 Ibid., 18-19.

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While there are many that may know about the battle, the so called “secrets” of it and its legacy

are confined to Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey. Australia became independent from

England in 1901, and Turkey did not become the state it is today until the breakup of the

Ottoman Empire after the end of World War I, but it is this specific battle that both Turkey and

Australia often cite as the birth of their individual nations. Although this perception is shared

between the two nations, the shared collective memory was not automatically there. It took an

effort of the part of both the citizens and governments of these nations.

The Dardanelles Campaign and the Battle of Gallipoli

Before looking at the commemorations of the Battle of Gallipoli, it is necessary to

consider the battle itself and how the events that unfolded on the Gallipoli Peninsula affected the

nations who fought there. Although Australia had become a federated nation in 1901, they were

still a state of the British Empire. Even with Britain’s entrance in the war, Australia and the other

states had the ability to decide on just how much they would support England in the war effort.1

Despite being labeled as the World War, the fighting, especially in the beginning was confined to

the nations of Europe, why would Australia need to join in the fighting if they could easily have

stayed neutral or offered minimal help to England? But England was the mother country, and

how could Australians turn their backs on them in this time of need? So, when the British

declared war against Germany, Australia was ready to send their help. Australia felt that they

must fight to uphold Britain’s place as a world leader and if Britain were to fall, Australia would

fall as well.2 The Australian and New Zealand forces left their homes to sail to Great Britain in

order to begin their training. During the voyage, the caravan of ships received word that they

1 Kevin Fewster, Vecihi Basarin, and Hatice Hürmüz Basarin, Gallipoli: The Turkish Story (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2003), 49.2 Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1956), 79-83.

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would not in fact be trained at Salisbury Plain, but in Egypt instead.3 These troops that had never

been tested in battle before, would train for only a few months in the desert before the plans for

them to be sent to the Dardanelles was put in motion.

With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the Ottoman Empire did not

immediately choose a side. Months after the break out of the war, they eventually joined sides

with Germany and Austria-Hungary to form the Central Powers. Despite the Ottoman Empire

ruling over the area of Anatolia and the Middle East, the perception from the rest of the world

was that the empire was in decline, the so-called “Sick Man of Europe.” This perceived

weakness made the Ottoman Empire a target for a quick defeat and so the Allied Forces (chiefly

Great Britain and France) turned their eye to the Mediterranean, and specifically, the Dardanelles

Strait. Centuries before this campaign was conceived, The Dardanelles have been seen the

gateway to the heart of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).4 In order

for the Allied Powers to remove the Ottoman Empire from the war, this was the route they would

have to take.  The initial attack at the Dardanelles began in early 1915. This naval bombardment

of the Dardanelles continued for months, and the British leaders began arguing about how to

finally finish the campaign. First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher wrote to British Prime Minister Lloyd

George claiming that the campaign would be “futile without solders” and by mid-March, the

orders were finally given to send troops to land at Gallipoli.5

The boats carrying the soldiers sailed up to the coast to join the others already there as

silently as possible in order to remain undetected by the Ottoman forces. In the early morning of

3 Jonathan King, Gallipoli Diaries: The Anzac's own Story Day by Day (Sydney: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 20. Col. John Monash would become the Commander in Chief of Australia’s army in France wrote home to his wife on the eve of the ANZAC landing reflecting on the apprehension of his soldiers and himself before heading into battle. 4 Bean, History, 231-232.5 Moorehead, 129.

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April 25, the troops arrived on the shores of Gallipoli to begin the “greatest combined naval and

military operation in history, with Australia in the pride of place.”6 Although the battle was

conceived by experienced officers, there were problems of incorrect assumptions on the abilities

of the Turkish troops, as well as separation between the different departments which allowed for

delays in relaying the plans and general miscommunication.7 The senior commanders of the

troops were without accurate information and the troops quickly realized they were on their

own.8

When the troops finally landed, they immediately realized that they were in the wrong

spot and therefore, any plans that had been made were mostly unusable, but with the only

commands from every higher up saying “ you must get on, whatever the opposition” the

ANZACs had no choice but to continue forward on to the beach and into the fire of bullets

raining down on them.9 With the Turks positioned at the top of the cliffs, it was obvious who had

the initial advantage, and yet, the ANZACs continued to move forward as much as they could.

Fighting lasted throughout the day with heavy casualties on both sides.

After the landing in April and the first days of battle came to a close, the British

commanders were surprised by the tenacity of the Turkish soldiers as well as the courage of the

ANZACs that they had sent to the front lines. At the end of the first few days of fighting and the

casualties were coming in, along with Turkish prisoners. C.E.W. Bean was able to talk to some

of the prisoners and their experiences so far in the battle. Some prisoners say that they enjoy

being a soldier, and some don’t, but they are fighting their best and others simply say that it was

6 Bean, History, 255-256.7 King, 54.8 C.E.W. Bean, Gallipoli Correspondent: The Frontline Diary of C.E.W. Bean. Ed. Kevin Fewster, (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1983), 111.9 Ibid., 113.

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hell.10 This sort of interaction between the two sides seems to be fairly standard throughout many

battles and wars. While we may expect for emotions to run high between the two sides, they

have just fought for days on end and both sides are exhausted. These two sides have fought

against each other because that is what they signed up to do. It is their duty. After the major

offensive by the Turks in May, there was a truce set up that allowed each side to bury their dead.

In the days leading up to the formal truce, Bean remarks that after the carnage they had just

witnessed and participated in, they no longer held the same animosity towards the Turks as they

had weeks earlier. They worked with them to get their wounded taken care of and even shared

their cigarettes.11

When reporting on the truce, Bean relays remarks from the Australians on the Turks.

They “have a sort of kindliness” for the Turks, but not at all for the Germans and that “ever trick

of the Turk is attributed to the German officers.”12 By attributing the negative aspects of the war

onto the Germans and not the Turkish, allowed the Australians to think about them as just

another piece of the war, like they were. Yes, both sides went in willingly, but they were not the

main actors. Australia went in to support England, and the Ottomans were reluctant allies with

the Central Powers. By being on the fringes of these two sides, it helps to set up the foundations

of the relationship after the war.

For a few months, the Allied forces stayed on the beach with battles fought on and off.

But in August, the Allies had a plan for another big push to take Gallipoli, and eventually,

Constantinople. On August 6, the ANZAC attempted another assault on the Turks, this time at a

different beach named Lone Pine. The Turkish line was eventually taken but this victory was

short lived. By the end of the next forty-eight hours, none of the objectives had been gained and

10 Moorehead., 279-280.11 Ibid., 330.12 Moorehead, 136.

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the campaign stalled once again.13 Four more months went by with no victories against the Turks

and no forward movement. Finally, in December the orders were given for all of the Allied

troops to be evacuated from the Dardanelles.14 The casualties for both sides were significant but

by the end of the war, the battle had been overshadowed by the horrors of the Western Front by

most of the world.

The Anzac Legend

The major outcome of this battle for Australians, was the creation of the Anzac Legend,

but what, exactly, is this “Anzac legend”? The ANZAC was made up of all volunteers that had

signed up to go far away from their homes to fight in a war to which they had no direct link.

Despite volunteering readily and being paid more than the rest of the soldiers, they were mostly

civilians and had yet to see any fighting.1  This important campaign was to be their first test.

Australian war correspondent Bean writes in his diary about the battle at Gallipoli and about the

ANZAC troops.  He describes the Australians in particular as having a “wild, pastoral and

independent life… that makes superb soldiers.”2 These soldiers were all young who felt like they

could take on anything, and that was the way they fought.

Stories of the courage of the soldiers were brought back to Australia and New Zealand

and were a source of great pride. Although the nine-month campaign at Gallipoli had ended in

defeat for the Allied troops, those ANZAC troops that walked away from the cliffs and beaches

of Gallipoli brought with them a new sense of national pride. Even the dead were seen as a

13 Bean, Gallipoli Correspondent, 83.14The John Masefield Society, “John Masefield (1878-1967): A Biographical Sketch”, https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20120101192040/http://ies.sas.ac.uk/cmps/Projects/Masefield/Society/jms2.htm1 John Masefield. Gallipoli. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916), 3. 2 The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, ed., Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "La Chanson de Roland," August 04, 2008, accessed February 28, 2017, https://www.britannica.com/topic/La-Chanson-de-Roland.

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source of pride. They sacrificed their lives bravely for not only their country, but for the entire

British Empire. Back home, April 25 was celebrated the very next year, and by 1920, Australia

declared it a public holiday and officially named it Anzac Day. They had already been their own

nation for fourteen years at this point, but this was the day that they saw themselves truly

emerging out of the shadow of England, and onto the world stage in their own right. The loss of

the battle was not what had mattered. What had mattered was that in the face of battle, the

ANZAC were the standouts of the battlefield and had come back heroes.

From battle to commemoration

With so much happening to Australia in such a short amount of time, there was an almost

immediate output of writing on the subject which has continued to this day. When discussing the

scholarship on the Gallipoli Campaign, it is important to look at the different perspectives on the

subject. One way to look at the scholarship is to divide it into categories of the scholarship that

focuses on the battle itself, and the scholarship that focuses on the legacy of the battle. This may

be an oversimplification of the ways the campaign has been analyzed, but it is still useful.

Outside of the written accounts by the war correspondents, the first book written on the Gallipoli

Campaign was John Masefield’s titled succinctly, Gallipoli and was first published in October

1916, approximately ten months after the evacuation of Gallipoli had been completed. Masefield

was a British poet who worked with the Red Cross during the war and for a time at Gallipoli.3

Masefield begins his book by explaining his reasoning for writing it. He describes how he

was often asked by Americans what had happened during the campaign and why it was even

undertaken given that, to Americans, it was a complete disaster, why continue to dwell on it?

Because of the constant questioning from these groups who were “happily ignorant of modern

3 Masefield, 25-26.

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war” he decided his best plan of action was to write this book and structure it around the

questions and criticisms that he was encountering. 4

Right away, it is obvious that Masefield has a certain flair for the dramatic when writing about

the campaign. Each of the chapters includes a passage from the medieval French epic poem “The

Song of Roland” which depicts a minor skirmish being transformed into an epic battle of heroes,

a parallel to Gallipoli.5 Masefield’s description of the troops sent to Gallipoli gives a glimpse

into what is called The Anzac Legend. He describes these men as having “physical beauty and

nobility” that “surpassed any men [he has] ever seen” and that they “walked and looked like the

kings in old poems.”6  The book also has a very personal tone with Masefield often using “our”

and “we” when referring to the British troops. Even though this book was published after the

completion of the Dardanelles Campaign, the world was still at war, and so the only way to look

at the campaign, would be in its singular context and not within the context of the war as a

whole.

While Masefield wrote while the fighting was taking place, Australian war

correspondent, C. E. W. Bean waited until after the war was over before receiving his

commission to write multiple volumes in the The Official History of Australia in the War of

1914-1918. This twelve volume set covers the entirety of the war, with the first two volumes

covering “The Story of the Anzac”. Similarly to Masefield, Bean was at Gallipoli during the

battle, but unlike Masefield, he was in the ships that brought the ANZACs to the beach on that

morning of April 25 and spent time in the trenches in the following days and months.

4 Bean, vii.

5 Bean, xxvi.6 Ibid., 605.

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Since these volumes are meant to be a reliable source of information, Bean states in the

beginning of his volumes that he has not only relied upon his first-hand knowledge of the events,

but that he also supplemented this information with vigorous research to ensure the accuracy of

his volumes. This research that he conducted, also included traveling to Turkey and interviewing

Turkish Army officials in order to understand the Turkish side better.7 Bean also believed that in

order for these volumes to have the correct authority, it needed to be written by a contemporary,

and by an Australian so to convey the motivations of his fellow countrymen.8

While Bean’s volume does do a better job of including more details about the Turkish

side, it is still an Australian account written by an Australian. Unlike Masefield’s work filled

with poetical references and adoration for the ANZAC, Bean’s volume has a more formal tone, it

is interspersed with sentiment but there are still the traces of the emotional tone that is often

involved when he speaks about the ANZAC and the Anzac Legend. When discussing these

losses sustained by the Australian and New Zealand forces, Bean describes the men who lost

their lives as having “purchased a tradition beyond all human power to appraise, and set for all

time the standard of conduct for the Australian and New Zealand soldier.”9 Bean continues his

description of these soldiers and why it was that they fought so hard when it was the assumption

that they did not have the same discipline as the other soldiers and the answer that he offers up is

simply their “mettle”. They fought because “life was not worth living unless they could be true

to their idea of Australian manhood.”10 And with these final lines in this volume, Bean has

inserted the Anzac Legend in this state sanctioned historical account.

As it is with most events in history, it is important for the passage of time to reveal all

7 Ibid., 607.8 Bean, xxvi.9 Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1956), 361.10 Ibid., 367.

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of the consequences and ripple effects. Alan Moorehead published his work, Gallipoli, in 1956

which gave him additional insights that were not available to Masefield and Bean. Bean himself

stated that in his volume he would not be able to accurately convey the scope of all the causes

and outcomes of the war simply because the information was not yet made available and that

even if this information was available, it was better left for later generations to grapple with since

they would supposedly be free of “corruption from the influence of national passions.11 While

Moorhead had access to the men directly involved in the Gallipoli campaign, in the fifty years

that had passed since the campaign had allowed for a deeper understanding of the ramifications

of the campaign. Moorehead’s account of the battle is to this day, one of the most cited sources.

As an account on the battle as a whole, it starts with the political climate in the Ottoman Empire

and Turkey that led them to ultimately join in with the Germans and become a target to the

Allied troops. This sets up an account that is far more objective than Masefield and even Bean.

What sets Moorehead’s account apart, is his epilogue. In it, he briefly explores some of

the various consequences of the battle and what has become of the battlefield. He begins

by looking at the various commanders at Gallipoli and their lives after not only Gallipoli but the

war as well. For the Allies, the campaign “had been a mighty destroyer of reputations.”12 Those

that had their reputation ruined, such as Kitchener and Churchill, were the British commanders,

the ones who continue to have a place of contempt within the Australian memory of the battle.

Moorehead ends his epilogue describing the current (to him) state of the peninsula. Life has

returned to some parts, but at Anzac, the battlefields are still visible, even if they are partially

11 Ibid., 369.12 Ibid., 369.

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eroded.13 The cemeteries that were built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission right

after the war are tended by an old Australian soldier, Major Millington who served as the

overseer of the graves for nearly forty years.14 As Moorehead tells it, it would seem that Major

Millington’s biggest adversary to preserving the graves would be nature itself since outside of

occasional organized tour groups, very few visitors travel to the battlefield each year and “for

months at a time nothing of any consequence happens.15 There may have been Anzac Day

commemorations going on all across Australia, but in this time period, that is where they seem to

have been contained. But even with this land having been seemingly forgotten about, there is still

an Australian presence there.

While the writings on the Gallipoli Campaign did not become exclusively about its

legacy, it became insufficient to write about the campaign without including it. The impact of

this legacy was central to how the story was told. Especially as the commemorations across

Australia began to grow in the 1980s, eventually spreading to Turkey, it became even more

important to investigate the legacy of the battle, for both Australians and Turks.

In a collaborative effort, historian Kevin Fewster worked with Vecihi and Hatice Hürmüz

Başarın, both immigrants to Australia from Turkey to write Gallipoli: The Turkish Story in 1985

with an update in 2003. It is a fairly short volume that spends a good amount of time focusing on

the Turkish side of the battle which allows the authors to reveal the similar situations that both

the Turkish and ANZAC forces dealt with throughout the battle. By acknowledging this shared

experience, the authors are able to show how the two nations have kept and strengthened ties

since the end of the campaign.

13 Kevin Fewster, Vecihi Başarın, and Hatice Hürmüz Başarın, Gallipoli: The Turkish Story (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2003), 3.14 Ibid., 11.15 Ibid., 85.

14

The introduction clearly states that the intent of the authors was to challenge “the

orthodox version of the campaign” and to also look into how “the Anzac legend has evolved

since”.16  The way the authors set up the book, is by beginning the book with a chapter titled “A

Special Bond.” Before explaining the Turkish side of the battle, the relationship between these

two nations born out of the battle, and specifically, the Anzac legend the authors contend “has

been redefined in recent years to embrace the Turkish soldiers along with the Anzacs.”17 In order

for this embrasure of a Turkish presence within the Australian commemorations, the authors

looked back to the battle and how the initial perceptions of the enemy changed. Neither side

knew much about their enemy, but during a ceasefire a few weeks after the initial landing, the

two sides met in no-man’s land to bury their dead. The soldiers left their trenches and “swapped

smiles, photographs, cigarettes, and small gifts with each other.”18 Yes, they were meant to be

enemies during the fighting, but to each side, there was never really any hatred there, only the

belief that they each side was meant to defend their nations.

Moving on from the battle, the authors explore the Turkish legacy of the war. Unlike

Australia, Turkey had to reform itself as a new nation that was independent and not a part of the

Ottoman Empire. This nation building took up most of their time and very little was spent on

commemorations. The most significant act of commemoration to come from this period were the

famous words of Mustafa Kemal (who is also known as Kemal Ataturk, or simply, Ataturk)

“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives. You are now living in the soil of a friendly country, therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side, here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons to faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.”19

16 Ibid., 2.17 Ibid., 141.18 Jenny Macleod, Gallipoli (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 77.19 Ibid., 83.

15

These words are now immortalized thanks to the monument bearing this inscription that stands at

Anzac Cove. To further this bond between these two nations, in 1965, Turkey and Australia

signed a migration pact that would allow Turkish workers to immigrate to Australia for work.

These immigrants may have initially had plans to return to Turkey after a number of years, but

most of them stayed in Australia and made new lives for themselves. The authors note that it is

strange and sometimes even uncomfortable for them during the Anzac Day commemorations,

but that the younger generations “are likely to regard Gallipoli as part of their common

heritage.”20 The book ends on a hopeful note that the continued cooperation between Turkey and

Australia will prove to be beneficial for both sides and create a lasting memory for generations to

come.

Within the last few years, there seems to have been a surge of publications about

Gallipoli and Anzac Day, most likely because of the centennial anniversary in 2015. In Jenny

Macleod’s book published in 2015, titled Gallipoli which is a part of Oxford University Press’s

Great Battles Series. This book is in fact the second book by Macleod on the subject of Gallipoli,

her first being published in 2004 entitled Reconsidering Gallipoli that was a historiography on

the battle and aftermath. In this book, she spends only three of nine chapters on the battle itself

and the rest on its legacy on the various sides, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Ireland, and

Turkey. In the chapter focusing on Australia, Macleod traces the commemorations of Anzac Day

from its beginning in 1916 up to the present day. Macleod states that the first Anzac Day

celebrated in 1916 in Brisbane and it “embodied the imperatives of mourning, pride, and the

pressing needs of war.”21 The Anzac Day commemorations grew with each year, and even more

so after the war ended. In 1926, the first dawn service was held in Sydney. This service, that

20 Ibid., 169-170.21 Michális S. Michael, ed., Reconciling Cultural and Political Identities in a Globalized World: Perspectives on Australia-Turkey Relations (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 4.

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Macleod considers to be “the most significant feature” of Anzac Day, was sparsely populated,

with merely 200 in attendance in 1929, but has since grown to hundreds of thousands in services

across the country.22

Macleod also investigates the changes that have taken place over time in the ways that

Turkey has commemorated and remembered the battle. The commemorations may not have been

as large as those in Australia, but they were still present. After the end of World War I and the

Ottoman Empire was broken up, Turkey was left to fight a war of independence. At the end of

this war, the celebrated Turkish commander at Gallipoli, Mustafa Kemal became the new

president of the new nation. With Kemal at the head of the new government, most

commemorations revolved around his leadership at the battle and his continued leadership of the

country. Years after Kemal’s death, commemorations began to take on a more public role. In the

1950s specifically, a Turkish delegation traveled to Australia for the first time to for Anzac Day

services, and there was a push to finally create a monument. These actions paid off and in 1960,

10,000 people came to celebrate the Çanakkale victory.23 The commemorations after this time

take on the role of creating international ties as well as strengthening political power at home.

The site of Çanakkale is seen as a victory for the Turks, and a place of pride for Australians.

Other recent volumes dedicated to the investigating the legacy of Anzac Day have taken

the form of collections of essays written by a combination of Turkish and Australian academics

to create a product examining the various ties between the two nations. In 2013, La Trobe

University in Australia and Journalists and Writers Foundation (Gazeticiler ve Yazarlar Vakfı) in

22 Richard Reid, Ian McGibbon, and Sarah Midford, “Remembering Gallipoli,” in Anzac Battlefield: a Gallipoli Landscape of War and Memory (Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2016). 193.23 Ibid., 202. The padre in charge of the final survey of the cemeteries on the peninsula was Anglican Chaplain William Dexter whose records would be used in the later identification of soldiers’ graves for the construction of the cemeteries. Dexter is also noted as having scattered Australian wattle seed on these areas so that a bit of Australia would be left once the troops had evacuated.

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Turkey co-hosted a two day Australia-Turkey Dialogue in Akçakoca, Turkey. The essays

presented at this gathering were eventually edited and gathered together in a book titled

Reconciling Cultural and Political Identities in a Globalized World: Perspectives on Australia-

Turkey Relations. This volume covers many different aspects about the relationship between

Australian and Turkey and demonstrates how that fits into the current circumstances of each

country and the globe. The editor, Michális S. Michael of the volume states that Gallipoli “often

overshadows the other facets of the Australia-Turkey relationship” which is why this volume’s

purpose is to explore the variety of ways that the relationship between these two nations has

taken outside of their common ties to Gallipoli.24

In a similar cooperative effort that also focuses on Australia and Turkey at Gallipoli, but

also on a very different aspect of the relationship, is the volume Anzac Battlefield: a Gallipoli

Landscape of War and Memory that was published in 2016. This volume looks at not only

Gallipoli at the time of the battle in 1915, but at its ancient past and its present. Two chapters in

particular, discuss the ways that the two sides have set up cemeteries and made other protections

of the land so quickly after the end of the war. The authors of the Australian chapter, Richard

Reid, Ian McGibbon, and Sarah Midford, investigate how Australia and New Zealand have

transformed the Anzac battlefield into what it is today.25

The beginning of this process began in 1915 in the midst of the campaign. Soldiers that

died in battle were buried on the peninsula either on the battlefield or in places that had been

designated as cemeteries. These places and those buried were recorded by the padres that had

accompanied the troops.26 The authors then go into great detail about the many years it took for

24 Ibid., 196.25 Ibid., 199.26 Mithat Atabay, Rehan Körpe, and Muhammet Erat, “Remembering Gallipoli from a Turkish Perspective,” in Anzac Battlefield: a Gallipoli Landscape of War and Memory. (Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 223.

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the Allies to finalize all of the agreements to not only construct the cemeteries, but to have

special protections put in place over all of the area that the ANZAC operated in. Both Australian

and New Zealand pressed their concerns of maintaining some sort of control over the Anzac

areas and cemeteries to the British during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Once these

concerns were addressed during these peace talks, the resolutions made had to be brought up

again during the Treaty of Sèvres with the Ottoman Empire.27 With this treaty, the Ottoman

Empire was broken up and led to a war between the Turks and the Greeks over control of the

land. Once the fighting had ended and the Turks had won their independence and control over

their lands, there was a need for renegotiations over the Gallipoli Peninsuala. The Lausanne

Conference was fraught with arguments over Turkish sovereignty and the promises made to

Australian and New Zealand during the previous treaties about how much area would be given to

the ANZAC cemeteries. Eventually, an agreement was met and the although Turkey was no

completely satisfied with the outcome, the chief Turkish representative, İsmet Pasha is quoted

saying that compromise was made “for the sole purpose of showing our desire for conciliation”.28

The rest of the chapter focuses on the various logistics that went into building the

cemeteries and the eventual commemorations that took place. This chapter is especially

revealing in how much effort was put in by the Australians and New Zealanders to not only

make these cemeteries, but to have a claim on the land. It was not something that happened

organically through the efforts of the Imperial War Graves commission.

While Australia and New Zealand have a long history of creating a commemoration

space on Turkish soil, Turkey built their own space on their own land as well. Turkish historians

Mithat Atabay, Reyhan Körpe, and Muhammet Erat, give their own nation’s side of the

27 Ibid., 224.28 Ibid., 224-225.

19

commemoration story in the following chapter of this same volume titled, “Remembering

Gallipoli from a Turkish perspective”, which covers the ways that Turkey has commemorated

the Gallipoli campaign. This chapter is unique in that it gives some insights into how similarly

both Turkey and Australia have used the legacy of this battle throughout the years. Although

these nations have similar commemorations, there are a couple differences that are important to

note. Turkey’s commemorations date is not the Anzac landing of April 25, but the naval victory

of March 8, 1915. Not only is this a different date, but the event is different too. While Australia

is commemorating something more abstract like the Anzac Legend, Turkey is celebrating a clear

victory over the Allies. But just like Anzac Day was commemorated for the first time in 1916,

Turkey’s naval victory was also celebrated on its first anniversary. This commemoration

consisted of a military ceremony, that according to Nihat Pasha, the commander of the

Çanakkale Fortified Zone was “to cherish the memory of the soldiers who fell on that date”, a

parade, and followed by a religious ceremony.29 So while this ceremony is more a celebration

since there was an actual victory, there is clear recognition that it is also about commemorating

those that were lost in the battle.

After the end of the war, the Allies were not the only ones to set up cemeteries and

monuments on the Gallipoli Peninsula for the soldiers that had been buried there during the

campaign. In 1924, a large delegation visited the cemeteries of the Gallipoli Peninsula and made

the decision to form the Martyrs’ Cemeteries Reconstruction Association. This association was

made up of parliamentary deputies, businessmen, and serving and former officers, led by

Istanbul Headquarters Commander Colonel Şakir (Güleş) Bey.30 In these early years, this

29 Atabay et al., 225.30 Ibid., 232-233.

20

association built monuments and cemeteries, raised funds from local businesses to maintain these

cemeteries, and inaugurated the Commemoration Day for the Fallen in 1927.31

Although the commemorations have changed with the ways that Turkey has changed

throughout the decades, there are two instances that Atabay et al. write on that are important to

mention for this paper. In 1934, a large delegation from Australia requested to come to Gallipoli

for a commemorative ceremony. This request was granted and it was at this ceremony that

Internal Affairs Minister Şükrü Kaya conveyed the immortal words of “those heroes that shed

their blood and lost their lives…they have become our sons as well” from Ataturk to this

Australian crowd.32 The authors continue tracing the commemorations and the various changes

the country goes through across the years and arrive at the 21st century. The authors describe the

commemorations of the of the 2000s to be expanded in scope with new ceremonies being added

by groups such as students from the Istanbul University Medical School to commemorate the

doctors who lost their lives during the battle for Chunuk Bair as well as Turkey inviting former

countries that wer once part of the Ottoman Empire to the 18 March naval victory ceremonies

and raise their flags at the Çanakkale Monument.33 This shows that not only is Turkey open to

commemorating with Australia and New Zealand on their day of commemoration, but they are

willing to share their own commemorations and expand the to different groups that still feel

connected to the battle.

While this is not an exhaustive list of studies that have been done on Gallipoli, it is a good

sample of the wide variety of perspectives and focuses that each author gives to their study. With

31 "ANZAC DAY," Bowen Independent, January 15, 1916, accessed March 16, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19635691932 “ANZAC DAY” The Brisbane Courier, March 01, 1916, accessed March 16, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2007764033 “ANZAC DAY” The Sydney Morning Herald, March 09, 1916, accessed March 16, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15660622.

21

many studies looking at the evolution of the commemorations of the campaign within Australia,

they all inevitably end up at the Dawn Service at Gallipoli and the continuously growing interest

in the commemorations.

What this study aims to consider is how the commemorations for this campaign have

been deliberately constructed and also evolved organically into something that could not be

confined to just Australia, both in terms of physical land and the people. Anzac Day is a very

Australian holiday, but at the same time, Australians are willing to share this with the Turkish

people. In many stories from the front lines and even stories from veterans later in the years,

never really paint the Turks as the villain, they were simply the ones who they were told to go

fight. With this absence of animosity between either side, it has made it easier for the two nations

to create a special bond out of battle.

The evolutions of commemorations are an important timeline to follow in order to help

understand how they have come to include not only Australians, but immigrants and Turks. The

national identity has changed over the course of the last one hundred years, and the Australians

have had to find a way to keep their traditions while also updating them. This study will look at

how this relationship has very strong ties between the governments and by the people

themselves. A collective memory is not created solely by governments. The ordinary, everyday

citizens are the ones needed to keep this collective memory thriving and continuing. With the

Australian and New Zealand cemeteries laying right next to the Turkish cemeteries on the

peninsula, Anzac Cove on Gallipoli, and Ataturk Memorial Garden in Canberra. The two nations

have used many different types of permanent memorials to maintain their bond. And while this

transcontinental memorials and bonds are all important, the culmination of this is expressed

through the Dawn Service held at Gallipoli.

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Chapter 2: Anzac Day Commemorations from 1916 through the 1970s

First Anniversary

The first commemorative ceremonies in honor of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli were

held on the first anniversary of the landings in 1916. The campaign had only been officially over

for a few months with the final evacuations of the troops completed in January. Although the war

was still raging on across Europe, the Gallipoli Campaign had already made such a mark on the

Australian people, that they felt the need to commemorate the anniversary. The decision to make

the anniversary was decided on as early as January of 1916 with a resolution passed by the State

Governor of Queensland with an open invitation for other Australian states to do the same.0

Although the campaign had only just officially ended, the stories from the front lines had

been coming in for months. The Anzac Legend had already taken hold in the hearts and minds of

the Australian people. In the case of the city of Brisbane, the committee made a formal decision

that the commemorations would focus on the soldiers who gave their lives at Gallipoli and those

that returned home and not on an effort to raise funds.0 The war was still raging across Europe

and there were still Australian soldiers fighting, but it was important for Australians to take a

somber moment to commemorate and remember those that they had lost while also solidifying

their newly emerging national identity.

On the first anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli, the commemorations were of course

new which meant that there was not a set precedent of what to expect. With the plan to keep the

commemoration focused on the memory of the soldiers and honoring those that returned, most of

0 “ANZAC DAY” The Northern Miner(Charters Towers), April 25, 1916, accessed March 18, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article80438025.0 Ibid.

23

the commemorations had a strong religious component. In the Sydney Morning Herald over a

month before the Anzac Day holiday, an article was printed to inform the public that it was

important to maintain a solemn mood that religious observance should be put first.0 This focus

on religious observation was not just in the larger cities like Sydney, but in smaller towns as

well. In the Queensland town of Charters Towers, the program for their commemorations was

printed in the newspaper on the day of the holiday, and the first item on the list was the various

church services across all denominations.0

By providing a religious focus within the commemorations on the first anniversary, it

became a fundamental aspect of the holiday. Almost 18 months into the war, the nations

involved were being faced with the slaughter of their young men at alarming rates and they were

quickly being forced to deal with the trauma of this loss. Often, in instances like war and other

traumatic events, religious leaders step up in an attempt to reach out to the people deal with the

loss. Churches are often a close community, one that rejoices together, and mourns together. The

commemorations often began with religious ceremonies (whether they be dawn ceremonies or

not) and during other ceremonies throughout the day, religious leaders were featured in a

prominent role.0 While religious ceremonies may not have such a prominent role in the

commemorations as they once did, it is important to note this religious origin in that it helps to

ground the early commemorations so that they are not seen as a simply spontaneous event.0

0 John A. Moses, “The struggle for Anzac Day 1916-1930 and the role of the Brisbane Anzac Day Commemoration Committee,” Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, June 01, 2002, accessed October 08, 2017, The Free Library https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+struggle+for+Anzac+Day+1916-1930+and+the+role+of+the+Brisbane...-a087146248.0 “ANZAC DAY”, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 25, 1916, accessed February 20, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15641655.0 Ibid.0 “ANZAC DAY” The Sydney Morning Herald, March 09, 1916, accessed March 16, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15660622.

24

When researching this first Anzac Day, the newspaper from the Sydney Morning Herald

from the day features a full page spread dedicated to the commemoration and what it means to

Australians. The article sets the tone of the day by stating “Australia’s great heart is throbbing”

and that Anzac Day will live in Australian history “as long as Australia lasts.”0 This was only the

first anniversary of the landings and they were already aware of just how much this campaign

had changed the nation. The imagery of the opening line sets the same poetic tone that many

other writers (especially C.E.W. Bean) have used and continue to use when writing about Anzac

Day. What is also interesting about this article, is the call for people to support the soldiers by

donating to the Repatriation Fund and to the Red Cross.0 This same newspaper had stated only

weeks before that the commemorations would not include efforts to raise funds.0 When initially

reading about the exclusion of raising funds as part of the commemoration, it seemed almost

counterintuitive. The people would be gathered together to remember not only the soldiers they

lost, but those that were still fighting. Australian participation in the war did not end with

Gallipoli and support (both monetary and moral) was still needed, bringing the topic up in

conjunction with the commemorations of Gallipoli was a logical decision.

Imperial War Graves Commission

Although Australia and the other allied nations were of course grieving their dead

throughout the war, there was not much that could really be done until the fighting ceased

completely. With the end of the war, the British Commonwealth started work almost

0 “Graves at Gallipoli. Work of the Commission. An Interesting Report”, The West Australian(Perth), May 06, 1929, accessed March 19, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article279630110 E.R. Peacock, "The Anzacs' Return to Gallipoli," The Mercury (Hobart), June 17, 1919, accessed March 19, 2017. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12402614. 0 “Graves on Gallipoli”, The Argus (Melbourne), November 08, 1920, accessed March 18, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4573009.

25

immediately on building cemeteries across the battlefields of Europe, Africa, and the Middle

East. At Gallipoli, Sir Fabian Ware was named the Director of the Imperial War Graves

Commission and was therefore in charge of the planning and construction of the cemeteries for

the Australian soldiers who had been buried there. The land that was allotted for these cemeteries

not only encompassed where the Australians had already been buried, but the whole of

Gallipoli.0 The subject of these cemeteries was one of anxiety for many back in Australia, to

have their family members that they had lost so far from home buried in a foreign place. The

point of this commission was to make sure that all proper ceremonies were observed to make

these cemeteries pieces of Australian land and not foreign soil.

Treaties had been created with the French government at the end of the war, that any area

where a British soldier had been buried was to be considered British territory.0 This, of course,

should have been no problem for the French and the British because they were allies during the

war and although it was foreign soil, it was considered friendly soil. In the case of the Australian

soldiers that had died at Gallipoli, they were on a foreign, enemy soil, in a place that a majority

of Australians had probably never even heard of before the campaign had begun. It was

important to all involved that the matter be dealt with honorably. On one of his visits to Gallipoli

to inspect the work surrounding the cemeteries, Ware sent a cable to Australia in hopes of

alleviating any fears families may have had. The message was a short one that simply stated,

“You can assure those in Australia who are interested that the graves of the Australian soldiers

are being reverently and carefully tended.”0 This was not much for Australians to go off of, but

0 “Gallipoli Graves. Commission Pays Visit”, The Queenslander(Brisbane), June 07, 1919, accessed March 19, 2017. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22373324.0 “Soldiers’ Graves. Imperial War Commission’s Proposals”, The West Australian(Perth), April

30, 1919, accessed March 19, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27603151. 0 Commonwealth War Graves Commission, http://www.cwgc.org. The website provides resources for users to search for specific cemeteries as well as other resources and information on anniversaries and commemorations.

26

the project was just beginning and they would have to wait for further reports as the commission

continued their work at Gallipoli.

Once the commission arrived in Turkey, there was much work for them to do. The

workers had to identify and mark all the places where an Australian soldier was buried. The

records were not complete and oftentimes it was impossible to find the specific place a soldier

had fallen. They knew it would be impossible to identify most remains. These men went

charging into battle, never to be seen again.0 With all of this uncertainty, it was a long and

difficult task that lay ahead of the commission. But bit by bit, they continued to build the

cemeteries and filled them with grass, flowers, and pathways that had been carefully planned out

by horticultural experts.0 The scars from the battlefield run deep within the landscape at

Gallipoli, but these cemeteries are still carefully tended to just as they had been when they were

originally built. Today the Imperial War Graves Commission is known as the Commonwealth

War Graves Commission and they continue to maintain the cemeteries built after World War I as

well as all the war cemeteries built in subsequent wars.0

National Holiday

With commemorative services being held in an official capacity starting in 1916, it was

almost certain that Anzac Day would become a national holiday. In Queensland, special school

0 “Commemorating Anzac Day”, The Townsville Daily Bulletin, March 01, 1916, accessed March 25, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article584923000 “Anzac Day”, The West Australian (Perth), March 20, 1916, accessed March 19, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article269746080 "Holiday on Anzac Day." The Diggers' Gazette: official organ of the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia (South Australian Branch) 1, no. 10 (April 1, 1920): 67. Accessed March 19, 2017. http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/228908073.

27

journals were created for the school children to “impress upon them the historic value of Anzac

Day.”0 The state was preparing not only to commemorate the lives lost and the brave soldiers

that returned, but these initial commemorations were in preparation for creating a new

remembrance in Australian history with Anzac Day as an official holiday. While this work was

designed to lead to the creation of a national holiday, it would still take a few years for it to

become official. In Perth, the motion to declare Anzac Day a public holiday was put forth within

the first few years, but as it was still in the middle of the war, it was decided that it was best to

wait at least until the end of the war before this motion was passed.0

It was obvious from the moment that the stories came back to Australia about the bravery

and courage of their soldiers on the battlefields of Gallipoli that this was a turning point in

Australian history as its own nation, so while the initial declaration of Anzac Day as a public

holiday was delayed, it was an inevitable outcome. The war ended in 1918 and after much

petitioning by various groups such as the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League, all

states in Australia had adopted Anzac Day as a public holiday by the early 1920s.0 This was not

an event that would be soon forgotten by Australians, but by making it a public holiday, it was

now guaranteed to forever be a part of Australian history.

0 "Dawn Service." Army.gov.au. December 15, 2016. Accessed June 12, 2017. https://www.army.gov.au/our-history/traditions/dawn-service.0 “Birthplace of the Australian Dawn Service Tradition” Albanyanzac.com.au. Accessed June 12, 2017. http://anzacalbany.com.au/discover-ww1-albany/albany-convoy-departure/. The city of Albany is situated on the southwestern coast of Australia and is where the Australian and New Zealand convoy left Australia to sail to England to start their training. The city held a centennial commemoration of this departure in 2014 and is a pilgrimage destination from both Australians and New Zealanders.0 “The Dawn Service” ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee. Anzacday.org.au. Accessed June 12, 2017. https://anzacday.org.au/the-dawn-service. According to this organization, Padre White gave a service for the soldiers as they left on the convoy in 1914 and held informal services at dawn on April 25 in the 1920s. He is quoted saying “Albany was the last sight of land these ANZAC troops saw after leaving Australian shores and some of them never returned. We should hold a service (here) at the first light of dawn each ANZAC Day to commemorate them.”

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Creation of Dawn Service

The exact origins of dawn ceremonies are unknown, but there are multiple stories that

have been agreed upon as the beginning of this now integral aspect of the Anzac Day services.

Choosing dawn as the time for commemorative services is important in multiple ways. Not only

was the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli scheduled for launch at dawn, it is a common time for

many naval and army attacks to begin. But in a wider context, dawn is often seen by people as a

time of renewal. It is the beginning of a new day. The night is over, and with the light comes

infinite possibilities. Commemorative services can happen at any time throughout the day on

Anzac Day, but the services held at dawn are going to inherently have a higher sense of purpose

and meaning. In the following years after the battle and the soldiers returned home, it is believed

that these returned soldiers would seek out the quiet of the pre-dawn hours on Anzac Day in

order to hold small, intimate vigils in several places across Australia, which would become the

basis for the formal ceremonies.0

The first recorded dawn service is recorded in the Western Australian city of Albany.

Former army chaplain Arthur Ernest White recorded in the church’s register a dawn Eucharist on

April 25th, 1930. Padre White held a service and along with members of his congregation, laid

wreaths at the nearby memorial.0 While the city of Albany may lay claim to the first recorded

Dawn Service, there is documentation of other, more informal dawn ceremonies and vigils in

other cities around the country. Queensland also claims partial recognition as the place of one of

the first dawn services. According to ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee of Queensland,

Captain George Harrington of Toowoomba and a small group of others went to the graves and

0 “The Anzac Day Tradition: The Dawn Service”. Australian War Memorial. Awm.gov.au. Accessed June 12, 2017. https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac-day/traditions.0 “Rockhampton Commemoration”. Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton). April 26, 1916. Accessed June 15, 2017. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53426831.

29

memorials of soldiers killed during the war and after finishing this, toasted their mates as the sun

rose. This tradition began in 1919 and continued for a couple years after that with the addition of

a bugler playing “Last Post” and “Reveille”.0 And in Sydney, the story goes that a group of

returned soldiers were coming home in the early hours of morning from Anzac Day functions

and came across a woman laying a wreath at the unfinished cenotaph. These men stopped, stayed

with the elderly woman for a few moments of silence and decided that next year there should be

a dawn ceremony. In 1928, around 150 people gathered at the Sydney cenotaph and this is now

regarded as the beginning of the organized dawn ceremonies.0

While the other commemorations on Anzac Day were meant for all Australians to

participate in, the Dawn Service, was initially mainly for returned soldiers. These services were

also very religious in nature. As with the dawn service held in Albany, they often included a

Eucharist, and bible verse readings.0 Outside of the returned soldiers, the only people attending a

dawn service were immediate family members of soldiers who had fought at Gallipoli, whether

they be attending with these soldiers, or if they were going to commemorate their memory. Even

after the war ended, the returned soldiers and families continued to attend these dawn services in

order to pay their respects to their loved ones. During World War II, there was a rise in

attendance because of Australian participation in the war. The services were still mainly focused

0 “Dawn Service”, Queensland Times (Ipswich), April 17, 1942, Accessed June 23, 2017. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115088036.0 Jenny Macleod, “The Fall and Rise of Anzac Day: 1965 and 1990 Compared,” War & Society, 20:1, 149-168, accessed July 28, 2017, Taylor and Francis Online, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/072924702791201935. Macleod’s research for her essay includes a note stating that according to Norman Pemberton, former local supervisor for the commission at Gallipoli, the peninsula was out of bounds to visitors up to the 1960s and that up to this time, staff from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission were given a daily escort 0 “Gallipoli,” The Week (Brisbane), February 22, 1924, accessed February 20, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article187189065.

30

on those that had fought in Gallipoli, there was the added attendance of families of those soldiers

who were currently fighting.0

In the wake of the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I, the Australian people were

suddenly forced to deal with this great loss of life, but also grappling with the new-found identity

of themselves as a nation. Anzac Day became that way in which they would celebrate this new

identity and focus on the commemoration of those who gave their lives so far from home. With

the start of World War II and Australia’s participation, was a whole new group of soldiers going

off to fight. The Anzac Legend had already been created, these boys were simply continuing to

embody it. All other Anzac Day commemorations also evolved to include commemorating

soldiers from World War II and beyond. The dawn services may have come about after the main

Anzac Day commemorations, but with more soldiers returning from another large-scale war,

there was a continued need for a smaller and reverent commemoration.

Early pilgrimages to Gallipoli

Although the dawn services across Australia and New Zealand are only part of the

commemorations of Anzac Day, they are a special way to create a link between themselves and

the men who stormed the shores of Gallipoli at the same all those year ago . The moment these

young men stepped off their boats as the sun was rising, the day was just beginning and so was

Australian history. Australia had only been an independent nation for 14 years, but this was their

time to create their own story, out of the shadow of England.

Although official services were not held at Gallipoli until the late 1980s, that does not

mean that it was devoid of visitors before then.0 Soldiers in particular would occasionally take

the long trip to Gallipoli around the anniversary of the landing and hold their own, private

0 “Memorable morning recalled,” The Mercury (Hobart), July 20, 1929, accessed February 20, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article24276822.0 Ibid.

31

services. Especially between the 1920s and 1940s, small groups of soldiers and their families

would travel to Gallipoli in order to visit the graves of theirs friends and families. In 1924, when

the construction of the Anzac cemeteries was almost completed, Australian Prime Minister

Stanley Bruce made an official trip to the peninsula to inspect the graves so he could report back

to the Australian people the progress of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.0 In 1929,

a group made up families who had lost loved ones at Gallipoli took a pilgrimage to the new

memorials and cemeteries that had been finished. This group had sponsors with them from both

the Australian and Turkish governments throughout their visit on the peninsula. The group may

not have been there on Anzac Day, but they still held a small service.0 Although being there on

Anzac Day may have given the trip slightly more symbolic value, what mattered was that they

knew they were standing on the same ground as their own soldiers had years earlier. Being able

to see exactly what they had had to face, was something that they would never forget.0 Years

later, in 1948, another delegation landed at Gallipoli not only to hold a dawn service, but also for

the unveiling ceremony of the Tobruk memorial.0 With this delegation was the Reverend Owen

B. Steele, who was “a former padre with the 9th division A.L.F.” to perform the services.0 These

early services at Gallipoli were similarly religious in nature as the dawn services were back in

Australia. The area that had already been sacred ground in the minds of Australians, was

0 “Gallipoli Landing”, The West Australian(Perth), November 13, 1947, accessed February 20, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46814368. 0 “Australian Padre holds Dawn Service at Gallipoli”, Advocate(Melbourne), April 29, 1948, accessed February 20, 2017. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article172496224.0 “Plan new landing at Gallipoli,” Brisbane Telegraph, December 24, 1954, accessed February 03, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article217161063.0 “Anzacs land again,” The Central Queensland Herald (Rockhampton), April 28, 1955, accessed October 06, 2017.0 “The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force,” The Gallipolian, no. 18, (1975): 6.

32

officially so with the completed cemeteries and memorials. The services that were held on the

peninsula were understandably solemn and reverent.

For the 40th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli, the Australian Returned Service

League organized a trip to Gallipoli that was open to ex-servicemen and their wives. While this

group would travel to many other battlefields throughout Europe on this trip, their first and most

important stop was to be at Gallipoli on Anzac Day as a sort of recreation of the initial landing.0

But unlike the initial landing, this group would not be met by a hostile force. This time they were

met by a group of Turks, some who were sons of soldiers who had fought in the battle, in

friendship.0

These types of organized pilgrimages continued to occur as often as possible. In 1975, the

British Gallipoli Association, announced in their journal that the Turkish government would no

longer be recognizing these official visits and that the peninsula would be turned into a national

park.0 The Gallipoli Association had their group trip a couple months after the Australian RSL

organized group, and were of course not turned away, but it does seem like these sorts of trips

were suspended, that is until the resurgence of interest in commemorations in the 1980s and

1990s.

Anzac Day commemorations post-World War II

0 “Realistic Anzac Day”, The Canberra Times, April 23, 1966. Accessed June 30, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128655133.0 “Canberra pays its tribute to Anzac”, The Canberra Times, April 26, 1961, Accessed June 30, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128655133. Although there is no number given for attendance, The Canberra Times reported in 1960 that the attendance at the Dawn Service was roughly 1,000 ex-serviceman and family members, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103078016.0 “5,000 expected at Dawn Service”, The Canberra Times, April 23, 1964, Accessed June 30, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104289861. It is curious to note that only the next year, there is only a short paragraph printed in the Canberra Times about the dawn service and its attendance of 40 people. There is not much additional context to understand what happened to make such a sharp decrease in attendance, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131769181. This may have simply been a fluke because in later years, the numbers continued to increase.

33

The years went on and the attendance at dawn services across the nation continued to

grow. During the 1960s, when yet again young men from Australia were sent from their homes

to foreign lands to fight in a war they had no direct link to, they were included in the

commemorations. In 1966, troops stationed across Southeast Asia may have been preparing for

an offensive in Borneo, but they still took the time to hold a service at dawn on Anzac Day at

various Australian memorials that had been built in the area after World War II.0 In 1961, the

Canberra times notes that the dawn service that year was attended by a “record crowd”, although

no number are officially given.0 Three years later, the number expected at the Dawn Service in

Canberra was marked at 5,000, proving that this ceremony was continuing to grow in

popularity.0

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, attendance at the dawn services continued to rise and

would draw crowds in the thousands. But as the veterans of Gallipoli and World War I were

declining rapidly in number, who were these people that continued to join in this ceremony? At

the 1977 ceremony, the Canberra Times writes that despite the few World War I veterans, there

were a number of younger Vietnam veterans, adolescents, young children, and many other

civilians who had come to view this ceremony as part of the “national lore”.0 The returned

veterans were the ones who had created this ceremony, and were the ones who created the roots

0 “Anzac Day”, The Canberra Times, April 26, 1977, Accessed August 02, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110734755. 0 Charles Madden, “Turks will attend Anzac Day Parade in Korea,” The West Australian (Perth), April 21, 1952, accessed July 1, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49027633.0 “Turks for Anzac Day Parade?” The Mercury (Hobart), February 25, 1953, accessed July 01, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27144405.0 “Public Opinion” Australia and the Vietnam War. Anzacportal.dva.gov.au. Accessed August 20, 2017. http://www.anzacportal.dva.gov.au/history/conflicts/australia-and-vietnam-war/events/public-opinion. Widespread marches, called moratorium marches, against Australia’s involvement in the war did not occur until the early 1970s when the troops were already in the process of being withdrawn from Korea.

34

to plant it within the national tradition. As the veterans died off, the younger generations took up

the torch to continue these commemorations at dawn.

Although the dawn ceremonies continued to add to their numbers throughout the 1960s

and 1970s, the same could not be said for the main Anzac Day ceremonies. With other world

events such as World War II, the Vietnam War and the anti-war sentiment that came with it, the

commemorations were not the same. The Anzac Legend had its place within World War I, and

even World War II, but in the context of the Korean conflict and especially the Vietnam War,

many citizens often felt as though the Anzac Day commemorations romanticized war.

Australia’s involvement in the Korean War brought them fighting side by side with their

former foes, the Turks. In 1952, Australian troops stationed in Korea invited Turkish troops to

commemorate Anzac Day and the Battle of Gallipoli together. Turkish Brigadier-General Namik

Arguc gladly accepted the invitation and spoke of how he Australian soldiers were held in high

regard in Turkey.0 This invitation to the Turks to share in the Anzac Day commemorations

would extend to the next year, only in Australia. Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies sent

an official invitation from the Australian government to the Turkish government inviting them to

send a delegation to Australia for Anzac Day.0 It does not seem as though the Turks took

Menzies up on this offer, but this was still a show of continued good will between the two

nations.

In 1965, Australia committed an army battalion to Vietnam which was met with very

little negative reaction, or much of a reaction in general. It wasn’t until Australia’s escalation in

Vietnam and sending troops to the front lines, did the Australian people begin to push back

0“Public doubt grows: Militarism not wanted in Anzac Day,” Tribune (Sydney), April 21, 1965, accessed August 05, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article236349074.0 Ibid.

35

against the war and Australia’s involvement in it.0 This anti-war sentiment manifested itself in

many citizens questioning the purpose and future of Anzac Day. The Sydney Morning Herald

put together a sort of round table discussion in order to look at the reasons as to why Anzac Day

is still important.0 This was the fiftieth anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli, the

commemorations should have been bigger than usual in order to convey the importance of the

day. But with Australia once again becoming involved in a war overseas, in the “wrong and

hopeless cause of American and British imperialism,” the same fervor just was not there.0 The

panel explored both the changing views of Australian society regarding war as a whole, and how

the focus of Anzac should be. The article ends with panelist Sir William Yeo who emphasizes

that the focus should be on the sacrifice and the courage of the ANZAC.0 Although this was

always a part of the Anzac Legend and Anzac Day, it was always linked to the battle and the

war, which during this time period became to be a major problem for many Australians.

In the following years, Australians continued to express their distaste for the sort of

glorification of war that they believed Anzac Day to represent. A local man, H.P. Cantor Hughes,

wrote in to the Canberra Times in order to express his outrage at the “poisoning of children’s

minds” that comes with Anzac Day.0 Cantor Hughes was frustrated with having to explain to his

son why the main sort of programs he was seeing during this time, was all fighting, but that he

was a “peace loving” Australian.0 This is a classic struggle that parents across the globe have to

0 Ibid. 0 H.P. Cantor Hughes, “Anzac Day,” The Canberra Times, April 28, 1967, accessed April 06, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131651868.0 Ibid.0 Lynn Caldwell, “Anzac Day,” The Australian Women’s Weekly, May 21, 1969, accessed April 06, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44025951.0 Ibid.0 A. T. Clarke, “Future of Anzac Day,” The Canberra Times, May 12, 1980, accessed July 01, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110957005. Clarke was the president for the RSL ACT branch, the main organizers for the Anzac Day parades and commemorations each year.

36

face. They have to explain to their children the darker sides of the world and humanity, and when

it is seemingly celebrated by your nation, it can be difficult to make sense of it.

Part of this rejection of the old ways of commemoration comes from simple differences

in generations. As Lynn Caldwell of Warrawong states when questioning the point of Anzac

Day, she just does not agree with “the oldies’ attitude” of intolerance and bigotry.0 Similarly to

the United States, the generation coming of age during the 1960s and 1970s was seen as much

more open-minded than that of the older generation. Caldwell does concede that she can see the

argument for commemorating the bravery and sacrifice of the ANZAC, but that this still does not

seem to be the main focus.0

During this time period, the Australian people are obviously going through a major shift

in ideology, and because of this, the Anzac Day commemorations were left to find a way to be

relevant again. While many believed that Anzac Day commemorations were destined to

eventually die out, there were still many that believed there was still a space for them within the

changing Australia.0 With the end of the Vietnam War, aging veterans, and major anniversaries,

the 1980s would see a monumental rise in commemoration participation.

0 David Sterritt. “Films from Down Under are Coming Out on Top” Christian Science Monitor (August 27, 1981): 39.0 Claudia Fonda-Bonardi and Peter Fonda-Bonardi, “The Birth of a Nation: An Interview with Peter Weir.” Cineaste 11 no. 4 (1982): 420 Sterritt. 39

37

Chapter 3: Resurgence of Commemoration Participation

Peter Weir’s Gallipoli and commemorations in the 1980s

Despite the rough patch for the commemorations during the 1960s and 1970s, the 1980s

showed a rise in interest and attendance in the commemorations that would continue to grow up

to the centennial anniversary in 2015. Although there has been much discussion about how and

why this resurgence in interest occurred, one event that seems to stand out is the release of Peter

Weir’s film, Gallipoli, in 1981. The film follows two young men, Frank and Archy, as they enlist

in the army and form a friendship as they go through training in Egypt and are eventually sent to

Gallipoli. The film focuses mostly on the two young men and their journeys with Frank and

Archy spending only about the last twenty minutes of the film at Gallipoli. By the time the

viewers are taken to Gallipoli, Weir has already created a world that is inherently good, and

characters that are full of energy, enthusiasm, and everything else a good Australian young man

should be.0 The film simultaneously proves the futility and wastefulness of war, while also

highlighting the characteristics of courage and mateship that form the Anzac Legend, the

characteristics that are commemorated each year on Anzac Day. In an interview with Cineaste,

Weir explains that he wanted to go back to the original source of these qualities that are said to

make up the Australian identity.0

In reading reviews of the film a topic that inevitably comes up in conjunction to this

supposed war film, is Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the lack of popular

support in Australia. These feelings of malcontent for the war are believed to be one of the main

factors in the decline in support and participation of Anzac Day commemorations. With Weir’s

0 Ibid.0 Jon Carroll, “History, Lost and Found,” San Francisco 23(1981): 40.

38

film, his focus on the young men and their strong characteristics, he is able to put the story of the

soldiers themselves and the Anzac Legend to the forefront without glorifying the war aspects in

the way it had been told in the past. Weir decided on making a film about Gallipoli after visiting

the battlefields and found “a sense of living history” while wandering through the trenches still

visible on the peninsula.0 Weir had obviously never been to the Gallipoli peninsula before, so

going from learning about Gallipoli all of his actually being at Gallipoli seemed to give him a

new sense of understanding. Weir had grown up with the story of the Anzac Day, passively

acknowledging Anzac Day celebrations until it became “unfashionable” to continue to celebrate

this day as it had been before.0 Weir divulges that as a teenager, he was involved in radical

theatre as a teenager and did his own part of “making a mockery of the military”, but this did not

last and he inevitable came back to the question of the meaning of Anzac Day.0 Weir wanted to

“reawaken memories of the men who fell at Gallipoli” and to find the “pioneer-types” that make

up the Australian heritage.0

This film was just as much for himself as it was for the rest of Australia. In the review for

the film in the Canberra Times, Dougal Macdonald writes using a lot of “we” and “us” when

describing the release of the film.0 Macdonald does not bring up Anzac Day, but focuses on the

feelings that the film evokes when watching it. He calls the film “breathtakingly powerful” and

0 Sterritt, 390 Dougal Macdonald, “Many strengths of ‘Gallipoli’ leave an enduring mark,” The Canberra Times, September 21, 1981, accessed July 01, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126847399.0 Ibid.0 “Memorial visitors increase by 82pc,” The Canberra Times, January 09, 1982, accessed October 05, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126870677. This increase in visitors is to the Australian Memorial itself, and not necessarily the Anzac Day commemorations. The article attributes this rise in attendance to both new exhibits at the memorial and the popularity of Gallipoli and another Australian war film, Breaker Morant.0 Frank Cranston, “A growing tradition in chill of dawn,” The Canberra Times, April 26, 1985, accessed July 04, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122474922.

39

finds no shame in weeping at the end of the film.0 There is no sense of the contested meanings of

Anzac Day that had been present at this time in Australia in his review, only the emotion that

comes with watching these two characters and their uniquely Australian characteristics, which is

what Weir intended with making the film. By bringing these sorts of wholesome characteristics

back to the forefront of the Anzac Legend, it allows for Australians to commemorate Anzac Day

without the stigma that surrounded it in the previous decade.

While there may have been other factors involved, it certainly seems that with the release

of Weir’s Gallipoli in 1981 began a major rise in attendance at Anzac Day commemorations.0

With the decline in attendance at the day time commemorations, but an increase in attendance at

the dawn services there was still hope in a future for Anzac Day.

At the 70th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, journalist Frank Cranston talks with

different people attending the dawn ceremony to understand why they took the time to attend a

service so early in the morning. The first woman Cranston speaks to simply says she comes

because it is part of being an Australian and that her father used to come every year.0 The dawn

service was not only a part of her identity as an Australian, but part of her identity within her

family. She does not say if her father or any other member of her family had been a part of the

military, but Cranston states that he could not deny that words held a sense of sincerity.0 On the

other end of the spectrum of attendants, was a man from Vietnam who was now an Australian

citizen. He felt the service helped to create a link between his new life as an Australian and his

family that was still in Vietnam.0 Out of the thousands that attended this ceremony, including the

stories of these two people specifically helps to illustrate what the pull is for attending these

0 Ibid.0 Ibid.0 Ibid.0 “Veterans to recruit PM for Anzac Cove campaign”, The Canberra Times, February 03, 1984, accessed February 02, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116387940.

40

Anzac Day commemorations. Cranston wraps up his article reiterating the words of the woman

he spoke with earlier that there was just something about the dawn service that was “uniquely

Australian.”0

Anzac Cove and Ataturk Memorial

Even after the large pilgrimages organized by the RSL other, smaller civilian pilgrims

continued to visit the cemeteries on Gallipoli throughout the years, but in the mid to late 1980s,

the number began to steadily rise. In addition to the general resurgence in interest in Gallipoli, a

major factor in this increase is because of the work between the Turkish and Australian

governments to officially rename Ari Burnu beach to Anzac Cove. In the early 1980s, it was

becoming obvious that the number of World War I veterans was dramatically dwindling which

led to efforts made by the remaining veterans ensure their legacy. The Gallipoli Legion of

Anzacs had been petitioning the government to negotiate with the Turkish government in order

to have Anzac Cove become the official name of the beach on which the ANZACs had landed.

One member of the Gallipoli Legion, Edward Brooks, stated that the renaming of the landing site

would be “a wonderful way of creating a memorial forever to those who fell”. Another

interesting fact about this group of Gallipoli veterans, is that according to Brooks, they have been

in contact with Turks in Australia since 1965.0

Through the efforts of the Gallipoli Legion of Anzacs, Prime Minister Bob Hawke

approached the Turkish government in 1984, in order to have a portion of the Gallipoli Peninsula

0Bob Hawke, “ANZAC Cove” Parliament of Australia. Prime Minister. News Release April 24, 1984. http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/213905378.0 Bob Hawke, “Renaming of Gallipoli Peninsula”, March 18, 1985. Accessed August 31, 2017. http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media%2Fpressrel%2FHPR03004705%220 Ibid.

41

be renamed ANZAC Cove.0 Hawke kept his word and it was announced the next year that the

Turkish government had agreed to set aside a special area to be named ANZAC Cove and that in

turn, the Australian government would give “suitable recognition” to not only the Australian

participants, but Turkish as well. Not only would there be the Ataturk Memorial in Canberra, but

also the entrance of the Princess Royal Harbour in Albany would be named after Ataturk.0 This

garden would have a commemorative stone with an inscribed tribute to Kemal Ataturk with his

famous lines of “Those heroes that have lost their lives…” that are also inscribed on a memorial

on Anzac Cove. Prime Minister Hawke ended his statement by calling these negotiations to be “a

singular act of friendship for a former foe… in the name of peace and friendship between our

nations.”0

Anzac Day, 1985 came and the two nations commemorated together despite being

thousands of miles away. In Canberra, the dedication of the Ataturk Memorial garden was

attended by the Turkish Foreign Minister, Vahit Halefoglu and in Gallipoli Australian Minister

for Veterans’ Affairs, Senator Gietzelt and nine AIF soldiers who had stormed the beach 70

years previously witnessed the naming of Anzac Cove.0 These two special commemorations,

would be a turning point in the commemorations to come. Both nations stated with these joint

commemorations that they were not commemorating war, but peace and friendship.0

Elevation of Dawn service in Australia and Anzac Cove

0 Frank Cranston, “Turkey, Australia come together for dedications,” The Canberra Times, April 26, 1985, accessed September 29, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122475099.0 Ibid.0 Bob Hawke, “Speech by the Prime Minister,” (Speech, Dawn Service, Gallipoli, April 25, 1990), http://archives.library.unisa.edu.au/record/9916007011901831/media/digital/open/9916007011901831/12142308460001831/13142306610001831/pdf.0 Bob Hawke “Transcript of news conference,” (News conference, Eceabat, Gallipoli, April 25, 1990), http://archives.library.unisa.edu.au/record/9916007000601831/media/digital/open/9916007000601831/12142307560001831/13142307000001831/pdf.0 R.M. Love, B.W. Love, “Gallipoli seventy-five years on,” The Gallipolian, no. 62, (1990): 26.

42

Australia was already experiencing renewed interest in the Anzac Day commemorations

at home, but it came to also include more people wanting to go to Anzac Cove for the Dawn

Service and Anzac Day commemorations. With the official renaming of the beach where the

ANZACs landed as Anzac Cove in 1985, the time came for the more organized and officially

recognized commemorations. It may not be definitively known what caused this large of an

interest in attending these ceremonies, but if you look back at the first commemorations of Anzac

Day as a whole, it is possible to see what could possibly be a cause. In the 1916, the Australian

people were trying to deal with this great loss of life and chose to take the anniversary of the

landing and make it into a tradition of remembrance. The Australians were dealing with the

immediate loss of their young men, but Australians in the 1980s and onward are dealing with the

loss of their World War I veterans. These veterans were a physical link to their past, the past that

helped to create the Australian national identity. With the efforts of the veterans to create an

everlasting bond between Australians and Turks, it laid the groundwork for the younger

generations to want to maintain this relationship.

1990 was the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, and after the large ceremonies

around the naming of Anzac Cove, this anniversary was bound to be a big one. Although

previous prime ministers, government officials, and veterans had visited Gallipoli at some time

or another in the previous 75 years, this year would be the first visit by the Australian Prime

Minister to attend the Anzac Day Dawn Service. Prime Minister Bob Hawke not only attended

the service, but also gave the speech for the day. Prime Minister Hawke’s speech at the dawn

service called for the younger generations to keep the memory bright of those who sacrificed

themselves for their country.0 In a news conference after the service, Hawke mourns over the fact

0 “Dawn service to be broadcast by ABC,” The Canberra Times, April 25, 1981, accessed July 01, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130546765.

43

that this service will most likely be the last one that any Gallipoli veterans will be able to attend,

and is then asked where he believes the Anzac Legend will go after the veterans die. Hawke

responds putting his faith in the younger generations of wanting to continue on the spirit of the

Anzac Legend because they are already putting forth the effort to make the pilgrimage to

Gallipoli with these veterans.0

Hawke may have been talking out of hope for the future, but just by seeing how much the

Australian people have become reinterested in Gallipoli in the past few years, it was not a stretch

for him to believe that the younger generations would continue to commemorate the Anzac

Legend and Gallipoli. In the Gallipolian, two members write about their experience visiting

Anzac Cove and the Gallipoli peninsula, and remark about how Turkey has done work in the

area for possible tourists. These members state that Gallipoli is not a popular tourist destination,

but wonders is it soon will be consumed by modern tourism.0

Back in Australia during the early 1990s, the dawn service would also become more

widely attended. In the 1980s, the services began to be broadcasts by the major network, ABC.0

The dawn services may have already been increasing in size at this time, but it was still mostly

veterans and families of veterans that were attending the services. By having it broadcast, those

who either were not able to make it, or did not feel they were welcome to join in, were still able

to be a part of it. But by the 1990s, the dawn services had grown so much, and those attending

may just be civilians. In 1993, there was an estimated 6,000 people attending the service.0

0 Frank Cranston, “Dawn service raised from private affair to public event,” The Canberra Times, April 26, 1993, accessed July 04, 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126984730.0 “Gallipoli 2015 planning,” (News conference, December 13, 2012), http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media/pressrel/2107244%22.0 Ibid.0 Tony Wright, “Gallipoli 100: Security and sleeping bags as thousands cram Anzac Cove for the centenary dawn service,” The Canberra Times, April 25, 2015, accessed June 25, 2017, http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/ww1/gallipoli-100-security-and-sleeping-bags-as-

44

Commemorations continued to be attended all over Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey in the

thousands. The peak attendance though, came of course in 2015, the one hundredth year

anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.

Gallipoli Centennial

As the centennial loomed ever nearer, the crowds began to grow. By the earlier 2000s, it

was no longer possible for someone to just decide to go to the Dawn Service. Tickets were issued

to those who filled out a request form months in advance and the three governments from

Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey would have to work closely with one another to make sure

that this commemoration went as smoothly as possible.

For the commemorations at Gallipoli, planning began over two years in advance. The

major issue discussed was, of course, the numbers. It seems that it was not so much a

negotiation, but that Turkey came to Australia and New Zealand saying that they could

accommodate 10, 000.0 In years before this, there was no need to cap the numbers, because was

not needed. The numbers may not seem like a high enough number, but head of Veterans’

Affairs, Warren Snowden reminds the interviewer that the Turkish government is not only

providing the space, but so many services as well.0 When the centennial finally arrived, there

were over 10,000 people with sleeping bags and other belonging lining up the whole day before.

thousands-cram-anzac-cove-for-the-centenary-dawn-service-20150424-1msyim.html.0 Alkira Reinfrank and Clarissa Thorpe, “Record crowd of 120,000 attends dawn service, 31,000 attend National service and march in Canberra,” ABC News, April 25, 2015, accessed June 25, 2017, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-25/record-crowd-of-120,000-people-attend-dawn-service-in-canberra/6420536.0 Sir Peter Cosgrove, “National ceremony commemorative address 2015,” (Speech, April 25, Canberra, 2015), https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/speeches/commemorative-address-national-ceremony-2015.

45

It may seem like a logistical nightmare to try and organize something as big as this, but when

everything was finished, there were few complaints and the day still held its usual magic.0

Although the number of visitors had to be so limited at Gallipoli, this was not the case

back in Australia. The rough estimate of those who attended the dawn service in Canberra came

in at 120,000, with around 30.000 attending the Veterans’ march later in the day.0 People had

traveled from all across the nation unlike from other years, in order to be in the capital, at the war

memorial for this special anniversary. At the National march, Governor-General of Australia, Sir

Peter Cosgrove gave a speech to the crowd. The point of his speech was about finding the family

histories of World War I, finding the Anzac Legend within everyone.0

0 Hatice Hürmüz Başarin and Vecihi Başarin, The Turks in Australia (Victoria: Turquoise Publications, 1993), 3.0 Carolyn Webb, “Anzac march open to ‘Johnny Turk’ – but that’s it,” The Age, April 12, 2006, accessed August 15, 2017, http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/anzac-march-open-to-johnny-turk/2006/04/11/1144521340623.html.0 Paul Cobb, “The Ataturk Memorial Canberra,” The Gallipolian, no.99 (2002): 32.

46

Chapter 5: Conclusion

On April 25, 1916, thousands of young men landed on the shores of the Gallipoli

Peninsula and many of them never returned to Australia. The remnants of the Australians on the

peninsula helped to create not only a new national identity for the rest of Australia, but an

enduring bond between Australia and Turkey. Men fell on both sides of the battlefield and

sometimes separating where the Australians ended and the Turks began was and impossible

distinction to make. In the years after the war had ended, the battlefield transformed into a series

of cemeteries, sacred land that belonged to neither Australians or Turks, but to both.

While Australia has become a more diverse continent with the addition of many different

ethnic groups, the national identity has had to evolve with it. Especially in the case of the large

group of Turkish immigrants that arrived in 1967 as part of an agreement between Australia and

Turkey.0 This time period was rough in general for the commemorations, and while Turkish

immigrants did in fact participate in Anzac Day parades, the reaction by some Australians was

not always very welcoming. But as time passed and the commemorations became more

inclusive, Turkish-Australians found their place within the Australian national identity. In 2006,

the RSL decided that descendants of Turkish soldiers that fought at Gallipoli would be able to

march in the annual Anzac Day parades.0 It may have taken some time, but the Australian

people did eventually become more open to sharing this national holiday and commemoration

with supposed outsiders. As stated earlier, the Turks were never really hated by the Australians,

and relations after the end of World War I were always friendly. Then with the creation of the

dawn service at Gallipoli it gave these two nations even more of a chance to gather together and 0 Ibid., 18-19.0 Kevin Fewster, Vecihi Basarin, and Hatice Hürmüz Basarin, Gallipoli: The Turkish Story (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2003), 49.

47

commemorate this battle that has become so important to each side. By having this joint

commemoration, Australians are able to have this space that is simultaneously Australian and

foreign and allows their own sense of national identity to be intertwined the collective memory

of the Turkish people.

Almost immediately after the war, the with Imperial War Graves Commission, Australia

began to carve its own space in Turkey. There may have been some bad feelings from the Turks

about giving up any sort of sovereignty of the land, but nothing major came of it. The Turkish

government always welcomed visiting groups from Australia and Australians continued to come

back year after year. With the renaming of Ari Burnu and the Ataturk Memorial Garden in

Canberra, the already ties between Turkey and Australia were permanently strengthened. The

Australians already had a strong presence within Turkey because of the Imperial War Graves

Commission, but with the Ataturk memorial, there was now a piece of Turkey in Australia (quite

literally since at the dedication, a container of soil brought from Anzac Cove and placed with the

memorial).0

While the original commemorations revolved around parades and marches, two actions

that have an inherently militaristic feel, the changing mood of the nation shifted this to the dawn

service that focused more on the sacrifice and dignity of the ANZAC. Even when the nation was

deeply divided, the commemorations continued and were able to survive because the citizens

were able to continuously reinterpret the meaning of Anzac Day. Reinterpreting the meaning of a

nationwide tradition such as this is necessary for the tradition to survive.

The dawn service at Gallipoli has benefitted greatly from being somewhat separated from

the other commemorations throughout the years. Because it did not become the large event that it

is today until after the shift in focus of the commemorations, it has been able to hold the interest

0 Alan Moorehead, Gallipoli (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1956), 79-83.

48

of the people of both Australia and Turkey. These commemorations may feature high ranking

government officials, the real ones in charge are the civilians. This is their history, their legacy

and they actively choose each year to come back to Anzac Cove to remember the sacrifices

made, and the identities that were found.

49

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