This morning we boarded the bus for the final leg of our trip -- we're going to Istanbul! First we crossed the Strait of the Dardanelles by ferry. It was a short, twenty-minute ride that was cool and windy from the upper deck. What a welcome from the heat of the past weeks. Technically we are now back in "Europe." Whether Turkey is European or Asian is now debatable.
Before we headed anywhere, we had to get a flat tire fixed. This gave us the opportunity to walk down to the shore where we sat on the rocks and gazed at the sea for a half hour. It was relaxing. Dunn sang "I Did It My Way" and I enjoyed that.
Before we headed anywhere, we had to get a flat tire fixed. This gave us the opportunity to walk down to the shore where we sat on the rocks and gazed at the sea for a half hour. It was relaxing. Dunn sang "I Did It My Way" and I enjoyed that.
Soon we were on our way to visit five monuments to the enormous numbers of soldiers who did during World War I in the misguided effort of the Allies to take the Canakkale and Gallipoli Peninsula. As many as 500,000 soldiers may have died here and the monuments to their memory are deeply moving. Each year, nearly a century later, the Turkish government holds a big memorial here where as many as 20,000 Australians, New Zealanders, and British join together to honor those who lost their lives at the place. This is where Kemal Ataturk famously triumphed, bringing him to prominence as the great leader he was to become. One of his well-known quotes was, "I order you not just to fight, but to die." The battle lasted more than eight months with young soldiers facing their "enemy" in trenches just 25 feet away, suffering unimaginable hardships. Many died just because of the conditions and disease.
The first monument is at ANZAC (to Australian New Zealand Army Corps) where so many who died on the beaches there lie in unmarked graves. Farther up the hill there is a memorial to the New Zealand troops with a monument that displays these words by Ataturk:
"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives!
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country, therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmet to us
where they lie side by side in this country of ours.
You, the mothers who sent your sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears.
You sons are now lying in our bosom, and are at peace.
After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well."
Soberly we boarded the bus to head farther up the mountain to the Lone Pine Memorial, the site of the fiercest fighting of all. Men fought in hand-to-hand combat and many tombstones honor the men there. Another memorial honors the far greater number of Turks who died to win this war -- perhaps 250,000. At the top of the mountain there is a monument to Ataturk where the red flag of Turkey waves.
It is hard to comprehend the depth of damage caused by war. Why does it have to happen? Why do we celebrate it in great movies and art? Why do epic tales such as the Iliad endure over the centuries? It's a conundrum.
The first monument is at ANZAC (to Australian New Zealand Army Corps) where so many who died on the beaches there lie in unmarked graves. Farther up the hill there is a memorial to the New Zealand troops with a monument that displays these words by Ataturk:
"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives!
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country, therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmet to us
where they lie side by side in this country of ours.
You, the mothers who sent your sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears.
You sons are now lying in our bosom, and are at peace.
After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well."
Soberly we boarded the bus to head farther up the mountain to the Lone Pine Memorial, the site of the fiercest fighting of all. Men fought in hand-to-hand combat and many tombstones honor the men there. Another memorial honors the far greater number of Turks who died to win this war -- perhaps 250,000. At the top of the mountain there is a monument to Ataturk where the red flag of Turkey waves.
It is hard to comprehend the depth of damage caused by war. Why does it have to happen? Why do we celebrate it in great movies and art? Why do epic tales such as the Iliad endure over the centuries? It's a conundrum.