All countries should work toward ensuring peace in the world
By Sara Rajabova
All countries should make every effort to ensure peace in the world, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He made the remarks at a commemorative ceremony to honor the victory of the Turks at the Gallipoli Battle on April 24, Anadolu agency reported.
“I once again express, in the name of all of us, our commitment to work towards ensuring peace, tranquility and prosperity in the world, in front of the cherished memories of hundreds of thousands of young people lying here – in this small peninsula,” Erdogan said.
Noting that every young person lying in these lands is a son of Turkey, Erdogan said “Today, we commemorate not only the loss of sons of this or that nation, but the all the soldiers, who perished in this land.”
“Our commemoration is the symbol of all the lost young people in this land, whose number were close to half a million,” Erdogan said.
He further noted that Turkey is ready to do everything to make 2015 a year of peace and stability.
Erdogan also thanked the heads of the countries that take part in the festivities currently underway in Turkey.
Turkey hosts world leaders to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Gallipoli - WWI - sending out a message of reconciliation and patriotic pride over one of the most dramatic Ottoman victories of the war.
The heads of 21 states, as well as senior officials from more than 70 countries are participating in the festivities.
President Erdogan, Presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iraq and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Bin Al Thani, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Prince Charles are among the participants.
The Battle of Gallipoli, which took place during World War I, killed over 500,000 people.
The Gallipoli campaign took place on the Gallipoli peninsula during the Ottoman Empire in between 1915 and 1916 by Entente countries, in order to capture the Turkish capital of Istanbul and open a sea route to Russia. The campaign was one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war and a major Allied failure. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation's history: a final surge in the defense of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled.
Gallipoli was long a defining moment in Turkey's national consciousness. Young colonel Mustafa Kemal - later known as Ataturk - was its great hero. He went on to found the secular republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.
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