Anzac Day in muted dawn service at Gallipoli

The dawn service held every April 25 is the culmination of events to remember fallen soldiers from Australia and New Zealand lost in a devastating battle during World War I in western Turkey. The occasion falls on what is now known as Anzac Day, which honors the memory of the two countries’ veterans and fallen soldiers. Traditionally, it is observed with large crowds, but for the past two years, the coronavirus pandemic has forced ceremonies to be scaled back.

/Australia and New Zealand commemorate war dead on Anzac day

In Turkey, where the battle that paved the way for the day to be marked was fought in, it was a muted affair. Around 50 people, including the official envoys of Australia and New Zealand and a handful of Turkish officials, attended the dawn service and a subsequent separate ceremony Sunday.

Anzac Cove, where the soldiers made their fateful landings 106 years ago in Gallipoli (Gelibolu) of the present-day province of Çanakkale, was eerily quiet except for the clacks and shutters of cameras and cellphones. Gone were thousands – sometimes hundreds – of visitors from New Zealand and Australia who used to sleep on the slope overlooking the cove as they awaited the dawn service every year.

/Anzac day Gallipoli

A wreath-laying ceremony with limited participants instead of a larger dawn service was held. Australian Ambassador to Ankara Marc Innes-Brown and New Zealand Ambassador Wendy Hinton made short speeches before Lt. Col. Anıl Aksoy, who represented the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) at the ceremony, read a letter sent by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk – a World War I commander in Çanakkale who went on to become the founding father of the Republic of Turkey – to families of Anzac soldiers killed in the Gallipoli campaign. A recitation of the anthems of Turkey, Australia and New Zealand wrapped up the ceremony, which was also attended by British Ambassador Dominick Chilcott, Irish Ambassador Sonya McGuinness and French Consul General in Istanbul Olivier Gauvin.

Anzac Day is revered as a celebration of the Anzac spirit, which helped Australia and New Zealand build a national identity, as the landings and sacrifice of the two countries’ soldiers were the first time when those members of the Commonwealth engaged in a war thousands of kilometers away from home.