Bulent Ersoz
19 September 2018•Update: 09 May 2022
CANAKKALE, Turkey
A commemoration ceremony on Wednesday was held at the "Hill 10 Memorial" in northwestern Canakkale's Gelibolu Peninsula on the 103rd anniversary of foreign troops landing on Turkish soil during World War I.
The ceremony was attended by Canadian Tourism Minister Christopher Mitchelmore, Canadian Ambassador to Turkey Chris Cooter as well as Turkish Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Haluk Dursun.
At the ceremony, Dursun said former enemies seeing each other as new and permanent friends was "pleasing".
Mitchelmore also expressed their gratitude to be at the Gelibolu Peninsula commemorating those troops who landed 103 years ago.
2018 marks the 103rd anniversary of the battle in the Canakkale Strait in the Gelibolu district, which served as a turnaround in favor of the Turks fighting in World War I against the Allied Forces.
They started their attack on March 18 --the day commemorated as Canakkale Naval Victory Day-- but the waters were filled with a network of mines laid by Ottoman vessels.
The events leading up to the momentous battle started in February 1915, when Britain and France decided to launch the Gallipoli campaign to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war as quickly as possible by reaching and capturing its capital, Istanbul.
