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Published: June 18th 2012
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ataturk
This was the nice thing Ataturk said after the war I picked up my tour in istanbul with bus about tours. For those of you don't know, I would recommend them. They are a smaller company than stat ravel or contiki, but so far just as nice. We have a very large coach, like angreyhound bus. There are 22 of us, so we can all have our own seats so it's nice to stretch out. We also have a very enthusiastic Aussie tour guide named Dax. Turns out I met him years ago in Ireland. Go figure! He's been to 88 countries! But he has also been traveling for 10 years, so that's gotta wear on him. Traveling as in.... Living and working abroad. I told him I collect currencies and he showed me his stash. It was massive filled with many countries' currency! He said something funny though: never let the truth get in the way of a good story. That was when he wasn't sure about a particular piece of info.
Yesterday we were on our way to stay in Eceabat near Galipoli. We traded Dax in for a local guide. He studied in London for a bit so his English was good, just his pronunciation was a
help
This is the Turkish soldier carrying the Kiwi soldier bit off. He would stress the wrong syllables and add ish to words like " right hereish " between the two guides I learned a lot of history. If you dont want to read them all, just skip the bullet list. Read the first one though 😊
• Troy was so rich because it was a port town. Where it was a port at was where winds and currents were very strong. Ships would be stuck there because it was random and rare for the wind to blow the other way, and it was too strong tonsail against. While the sailors stayed, they had to pay....so Troy got rich!
• There are 3 main religions in thebalkans: Catholicism, Islam, and orthodox. Catholicism was here because of the Romans. The ottomans brought Islam. They were actually in power up until the first world war! And some Catholics decided they didn't think a pope so far away shoud tell them what to do, so they made orthodox. When you repent in orth, you repent your whole life and mankind all the way back to Adam. Little intense!
• The Byzantines were in charge of the
pine
Lone Pine Cemetar balkans after the roman empire split, but they actually started speaking Greek, even though they were roman.
• The ottomans were conquering a lot. After they took Istanbul, they sprea out to try and take on the other major power at the time--the Hapsbergs of austria. The Hapsburgs managed to stop the ottomans in Vienna, so that's why Islam isn't all over Europe. If the ottomans hadn't been stopped, we might all be Muslim now!
• Gallipoli cmapaign starte because the Turks were blockading the Bosphorous strait (between black sea and Mediterranean sea) and the Russians couldn't get supplies throguh. The Brits thought their navy would be good enough to get thru, and their guns had longer reach than the Turks guns. Turks placed mines well and because of the current and wind, Brits were sinking and retreated. 6 weeks later, the land campaign began
• Anzac (Gallipoli) is known as one of tqhe worst run campaigns ever. Because of currents they landed in wrong place. Happened to land where Turks were pretty well defended. Happened to land on a steep cliff. (think Armageddon the movie where they landed in the worst spot possible).
sphinx
This is called the Sphinx And then they didn't synchronize watches.
• The watches thing is important because they were bombing the Turk trenches. The Turks were going to retreat and the bombs were going to end at a certain time, and the Anzacs would rush and take the trenches. Yea...so the bombing goes fine, and the Turks retreat as predicted..... But the Anzacs didn't rush because it wad the correct time... On *their* watches. When they finally did a few mins after they were supposed to.... The Turks were back and every man died. The second wave was ordered to try again even though thy saw evvvvveryone die in the first wave. They asked to clarify and the higher ups insisted. Absolute needless slaughter.
• The Turks and the Anzacs carried on this nasty trench warfare for over six months under awful conditions. Over 100 in the summer an in the negatives during the winter. More men died from the elements and disease then battle wounds. Per sq meter, gallopoli is bloodiest place. I believe 2 men per sq meter per day.
• Even thouGh the Anzacs ( that's Australian and new Zealand forces btw), it was still
trench
The trenches are not very deep! kinda a win for them because it was the first time they stood up as a country and were recognized globally. It's also sort of the time when turkeys nation was born.
• During the initial landing, a young Turkish officer heard that the Anzacs were landing. He ignored orders to sat put and we t to reinforce. Had he not done that, the Anzacs mint have been successful, so the Turks view him as a hero. After the war and a few other awesome military deeds, after the ottomans were stripped of power, he called for turkey to become a new country.
• That war hero's name was later changed to Ataturk....father of turkey. He was elected the first president when turkey became a republic. He was the one who modernized turkey. He made it become a democracy instead if having a sultan again, he changed the writing from the old Arabic letters (that looks like calligraphy) to roman letters, he standardized pronunciation to make everqything spelled phonetically, he gave women more rights, pushed education and made the separation of church and state. Wow. Thank goodness he had a pocket watch on him! It stopped a bullet that saved his life.
• He also said some really sweet words after the war. I took a pic of it.
• If you say something bad about Ataturk, you go to jail
• Th Greeks don't like the turks. Ataturk took away some of their land, and in 1975, they also took part of Cyprus. We are currently on the way to a border crossing between the two countries. Dax ays it gets interesting lol
• Turkey has 2nd largest military behind the US
BACK TO ME!
If you skipped the history, that's too bad because it's interesting! Seeing the beaches where the anzacs were supposed to come and where they did come was a similar feeling to seeing Normandy. Even though its a little removed from me because my country was involved, I can still appreciate it because I know people in the military and how I would feel if they were ordered for a suicide run. Both sides suffered masssssive casualities. Even Ataturk told his Turkish forces in a famous speech, " I don't expect you to attack, I expect you to die" the Turks had to keep the Anzacs busy and wait for reinforcements. I believe that was the 57th regiment. A Turkish regiment has 3000 men. No one survived. THey actually no longer have a 57th in respect. It skips right to 58.
I liked that the tour guide gave equal respect to both sides of the battle. Even though we were on posing sides, thaw were still men who died because their country asked them to. Some were just boys. The youngest was a 14 year old Aussie. So sad.
The battle of lone pine was an Anzac "success". Look at the picture. In that small area 40,000 men died in 3 days. Three days. The whole area was covered in trees and only one remained. Hence the name. Some ground changed hands 5 times in one day.
The park is run by the Turks, but they still maintain all e grounds. Even the cemeteries for the Anzacs. They left some trenches and you can see how not at all deep they are. Once you are at the high ground they were fighting for, you can see how far and how high the Anzacs had to come to get it. At ine point, it was looking bad for the Anzacs, and the general said, "dig, dig for your lives" and the did. They dug something like 3000 km in like...six months? That is why they call Aussies and kiwis diggers. But I've never heard that.
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Jemille
non-member comment
Wow! Heart-rending!
Thanks for relating all that history. That is so funny that you met Dax before. The first Australian Shepherd I met was named Dax. He used to jump in the back of people's cars at our apartments. He disappeared one day. I'm sure someone found him and thought someone had dumped him. He was beautiful and a very sweet dog, so I believe things worked out for him.