V R Raghavan.
Apr 24 2015
A remarkable outcome of the Gallipoli fiasco and its heavy costs in lives, was the new awareness in the people of Australia and New Zealand of their national identity.
COMMEMORATIONS of FirWorld War I, a century ago, began last year will continue for some time. It will be a hundred years in April, 2015 after the disastrous campaign fought in the Gallipoli Peninsula, between Turkey and the Allied powers led by United Kingdom. World War I was termed the Great War as much for the size of the forces which fought in it as for the carnage and costs to victors and vanquished alike. Gallipoli was a side show of the war but became a campaign marked by the valour and sacrifices of the troops, mainly from Australia, New Zealand, France and UK as also of Turkish army led by Kemal Ataturk.
It was a costly but wasted campaign away from the great battlefields in Belgium and France which made the Great War famous. It was a campaign initiated by Winston Churchill against military advice. The disastrous campaign led to Churchill resigning from the British cabinet and going into oblivion to command a regiment on the western front. The Great War brought about the breakup of the Ottoman empire but Gallipoli began the emergence of Turkey as a modern state under Ataturk.
No comments:
Post a Comment