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Çanakkale Sehitleri Aniti (Çanakkale Martyrs Memorial), Morto Bay


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Audio transcript

Towering high above Morto Bay, Helles, is the Çanakkale Sehitleri Aniti, the Çanakkale Martyrs Memorial. This is Turkey’s tribute to the soldiers, the ‘Mehmets’, who fought and died at the Dardanelles in 1914 and 1915. The view through the arches of the tower is to the entrance to the Straits of the Dardanelles, the Çanakkale Boğazi, a reminder that for Turkey, Gallipoli was not about a few acres of ‘Helles’ or ‘Anzac’ but the control of this seaway leading into the heartland of western Turkey.

The significance of the early sea battle for the Straits is emphasised on the friezes on the memorial. There are no captions to these scenes, but Turks with a sense of their history would know the stories. There is the ‘man with the shell’, Corporal Seyit, lifting the 275-kilogram projectile which, it is claimed, hit and helped sink the British battleship HMS Ocean on 18 March 1915. There is the game little minelayer, the Nusret, which snuck out to lay a clutch of mines, one of which sank the French battleship Bouvet. There are Turkish gunboats taking on the British battleships; one of the latter is sinking. Possibly it is HMS Goliath, sunk with great loss on the night of 12–13 May 1915 by the daring action of the Turkish torpedo boat Muavenet in Morto Bay.

In the museum near the memorial are battlefield objects and photographs – belt buckles, a wireless set, shields used by snipers and even a set of false teeth. The walls are adorned with the words of the best-known Turkish commander at Gallipoli, one who became the founder of modern Turkey and the first President of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. One of these placards refers to a unit Atatürk knew well, the 57th Regiment, which on 25 April 1916, and for days thereafter, fought the Anzacs during the Battle of the Landing. Australians are all too aware of their losses at Gallipoli. Atatürk said simply of the 57th Regiment:

Meşhur bir alaydir bu, Çünkü hepsi şehit olmuştur.
(That is a famous regiment, because all of them were killed.)

Towering high above Morto Bay, Helles, is the Çanakkale Sehitleri Aniti, the Çanakkale Martyrs Memorial. This is Turkey’s tribute to the soldiers, the ‘Mehmets’, who fought and died at the Dardanelles in 1914 and 1915. The view through the arches of the tower is to the entrance to the Straits of the Dardanelles, the Çanakkale Boğazi, a reminder that for Turkey, Gallipoli was not about a few acres of ‘Helles’ or ‘Anzac’ but the control of this seaway leading into the heartland of western Turkey.

Captain Firle and the crew of the Turkish Navy torpedo boat which broke through the British-French naval lines.

The crew of the Turkish torpedo boat Muavanet i Milliye, with their German naval commander Kapitanleutnant Rudolph Firle, responsible for sinking the British battleship HMS Goliath off Morto Bay, Gallipoli, on the night of 12–13 May 1915. [AWM H12380]

The significance of the early sea battle for the Straits is emphasised on the friezes on the memorial. There are no captions to these scenes, but Turks with a sense of their history would know the stories. There is the ‘man with the shell’, Corporal Seyit, lifting the 275-kilogram projectile which, it is claimed, hit and helped sink the British battleship HMS Ocean on 18 March 1915. There is the game little minelayer, the Nusret, which snuck out to lay a clutch of mines, one of which sank the French battleship Bouvet. There are Turkish gunboats taking on the British battleships; one of the latter is sinking. Possibly it is HMS Goliath, sunk with great loss on the night of 12–13 May 1915 by the daring action of the Turkish torpedo boat Muavenet in Morto Bay.

The Turkish Memorial to the Battle of Çanakkale, 1915, the Çanakkale Şehitleri Abidesi, at Morto Bay, Gallipoli, 2004.

The Turkish Memorial to the Battle of Çanakkale, 1915, the Çanakkale Şehitleri Abidesi, at Morto Bay, Gallipoli, 2004.

In the museum near the memorial are battlefield objects and photographs – belt buckles, a wireless set, shields used by snipers and even a set of false teeth. The walls are adorned with the words of the best-known Turkish commander at Gallipoli, one who became the founder of modern Turkey and the first President of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. One of these placards refers to a unit Atatürk knew well, the 57th Regiment, which on 25 April 1916, and for days thereafter, fought the Anzacs during the Battle of the Landing. Australians are all too aware of their losses at Gallipoli. Atatürk said simply of the 57th Regiment:

Meşhur bir alaydir bu, Çünkü hepsi şehit olmuştur.
(That is a famous regiment, because all of them were killed.)