page_title: Gallipoli
section_title: World War I: Gallipoli Campaign, persecution of Greeks (1914–1919)
hierarchical_section_title: Gallipoli / History / Ottoman era / World War I: Gallipoli Campaign, persecution of Greeks (1914–1919)
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die "Sphinx" in der ANZAC-Bucht auf der Halbinsel Gallipoli, Schauplatz der Schlacht von Gallipoli im Ersten Weltkrieg.
context_page_description: The Gallipoli peninsula is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east.
  Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name "Καλλίπολις", meaning "Beautiful City", the original name of the modern town of Gelibolu. In antiquity, the peninsula was known as the Thracian Chersonese.
  The peninsula runs in a south-westerly direction into the Aegean Sea, between the Dardanelles, and the Gulf of Saros. In antiquity, it was protected by the Long Wall, a defensive structure built across the narrowest part of the peninsula near the ancient city of Agora. The isthmus traversed by the wall was only 36 stadia in breadth or about 6.5 km, but the length of the peninsula from this wall to its southern extremity, Cape Mastusia, was 420 stadia or about 77.5 km.
context_section_description: During World War I (1914-1918), French, British and colonial forces (Australian, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Irish and Indian) fought the Gallipoli campaign (1915-1916) in and near the peninsula, seeking to secure a sea route to relieve their eastern ally, Russia. The Ottomans set up defensive fortifications along the peninsula and contained the invading forces.
  In early 1915, attempting to seize a strategic advantage in World War I by capturing Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), the British authorised an attack on the peninsula by French, British and British Empire forces. The first Australian troops landed at ANZAC Cove early in the morning of 25 April 1915. After eight months of heavy fighting the last Allied soldiers withdrew by 9 January 1916.
  The campaign, one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war, is considered by historians as a major Allied failure. Turks regard it as a defining moment in their nation's history: a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the founding of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who first rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli.
  The Ottoman Empire instituted the Gallipoli Star as a military decoration  in 1915 and awarded it throughout the rest of World War I.
  The campaign was the first major military action of Australia and New Zealand (or Anzacs) as independent dominions, and is often considered to mark the birth of national consciousness in those nations. The date of the landing, 25 April, is known as "Anzac Day". It remains the most significant commemoration of military casualties and "returned soldiers" in Australia and New Zealand.
  On the Allied side one of the promoters of the expedition was Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, whose bullish optimism hurt his reputation that took years to recover: the English had the popular belief that there were more British and French casualties and deaths than among their Anzac comrades; Australians and New Zealanders resented perceived British incompetence and the alleged British propensity to use them wastefully as cannon fodder. No serious attempt was made to understand the nature of the terrain nor logistical support required for success against the Turkish army. The wishful thinking of generals not based on reality doomed the campaign before it began.
  Prior to the Allied landings in April 1915, the Ottoman Empire deported Greek residents from Gallipoli and surrounding region and from the islands in the sea of Marmara, to the interior where they were at the mercy of hostile Turks. The Greeks had little time to pack and the Ottoman authorities permitted them to take only some bedding and the rest was handed over to the Government. The Turks also plundered Greek houses and properties. A testimony of a deportee described how the deportees were forced onto crowded steamers, standing-room only; how, on disembarking, men of military age were removed (for forced labour in the labour battalions of the Ottoman army) and how the rest were "scattered… among the farms like ownerless cattle".
  The Metropolitan of Gallipoli wrote on 17 July 1915 that the extermination of the Christian refugees was methodical. He also mentions that "The Turks, like beasts of prey, immediately plundered all the Christians' property and carried it off. The inhabitants and refugees of my district are entirely without shelter, awaiting to be sent no one knows where ...". Many Greeks died from hunger and there were frequent cases of rape among women and young girls, as well as their forced conversion to Islam.
caption: The Sphinx overlooking Anzac Cove
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