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The Myth and Reality of Gallipoli 1915
World War One has become a fundamental theme shaping modern Australian
identity, especially the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 against the
Ottoman Empire. It was during this campaign that
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)
fought as units of the British army. Gallipoli today
signifies Australia's coming of age as a nation. However, the
experiences of these troops, who fought against the Ottoman Turkish
Empire have been shrouded in a mixture of reality, myth and
half-truths. The Turkish government exploits the
ANZAC Legend and has become part of the myth.
While it is not a myth that the ANZACs made great sacrifices
against immense odds, there is a myth which portrayed Turkey as "the
noble enemy".
Even today,
Ottoman Turks are treated as exceptional
enemies, especially the Turkish commander at
Gallipoli (and future dictator) Mustafa Kemal. He was later credited
with saying that "After having lost their lives on this land", the
Allied soldiers "have become our sons as well". The Australian
Returned and Services League permits Turks to
participate in the annual ANZAC commemorations on
25 April, the only former enemies to do so. In 2006,
veterans of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus even participated in
ANZAC Day parades. Some Australians - including political leaders -
have bought into the ANZAC myth so much, that they
describe Turkey as "a democratic country" (former
Minister for Veterans' Affairs Dana Vale MP).
In an address to the Australian Christian Lobby's annual conference on
22 September this year, Treasurer Peter Costello said modern Turkey
was "the most outstanding example" of a "secular
state separate from the religious domain in the
Muslim world". Chairman of the Islamic Friendship
Association of Australia Keysar Trad said Mr Costello was
once again advertising his ignorance of Islam. "He is an ignorant
fool and he has no idea what he is talking about".
Appalling Statistics
Conventional accounts of Australian involvement in World War One rarely
mention the prisoners of war. There is little about their experiences
in captivity that is "noble". Only 325 ANZACs were
captured by the Turks; one in three never returned
from captivity. One may compare these statistics
to Germany, which captured 4,000 Australians, with a death
rate of less than one in ten (mainly from influenza). The death of
Australian POWs in Ottoman Turkey was mainly due to maltreatment. The
fate of these Australians has become an inconvenient fact for the
promoters of the ANZAC legend. In fact, Australian schoolchildren
often do not know that there were POWs during the
Gallipoli campaign, or that the Australian side
lost.
Key Sources
One can follow the experiences of the Australian POWs in Turkey through
archival reports and their published sources. One could look at the
crew of the Australian AE2 (submarine) as an
example. They were subjected to slave labour,
physical torture and mental abuse.
In the Taurus Mountains, Australian POWs were used for slave labour to
dig tunnels and work as pack animals to construct rail roads. In his
memoirs, submariner John Harrison Wheat describes his experiences:
"There were eleven of us in this awful place swarming with lice and
fleas. It was sweltering hot, and that, combined with the awful smell
from this filthy pit was unbearable. We used to strip to the waist to
enable us better to keep off attacks from vermin. Sometimes I think
it was only a horrible dream but when I think it
over, I know it actually happened. We endured this
for fourteen days".
Infantryman George Kerr gives a similar account of his internment:
"Earlier in 1915, scores of Armenians had been murdered or driven out of
the town (Afion Karahissar) by Turkish troops in the name of 'ethnic
cleansing', and the grounds of the prison camp were reputedly sown
with the remains of some of these victims".
Later transferred to the Taurus Mountains, Kerr made the following note
in his secret diary:
"Underneath us on the floor of the room, were huddled, in all kinds of
rugs, about sixty miserable creatures who, we afterwards discovered,
were Greeks and Armenians employed on the tunnel. They were crouched
about the fires made in old mess dishes and in that dull light,
looked the lowest human beings I had ever set eyes
on".
Australia, Turkey and the ANZAC Legend
The Australian government today does not care about the treatment of its
POWs in Turkish hands. It chooses to follow the British Foreign
Office lead in placating Turkey, an important
export market for Australia. The Australian state
chooses to prop up the ANZAC legend as it stands as a
matter of politics. The Turkish government, in turn, uses the ANZAC
myth to sanitise its own image in history and to
promote tourism.
"When Japan used save labour and abused POWs during World War Two," said
Dr Diamadis, "Japan's actions were condemned, punished by courts of
law and the memory of the abuse memorialised. This
did not happen following the First World War.
Indeed, it was until 2005 that the Australian War
Memorial in Canberra created a permanent display on this inconvenient
truth".
Historical Record
The Australian attitude remains very different to a very similar
situation. There are currently hundreds of unpublished reports
written by former Australian and other Allied POWs
describing their experiences in Ottoman Turkey.
Many of these records throw light on the destruction
of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians. Dr. Diamadis is currently
finishing work on BEYOND ANZAC COVE, a documentary
book based on these records, to be published by
the Gomidas Institute in 2007.
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