It takes 13 hours to get to Turkey (if you fly direct) and I've heard many times "wow that's really far" and being an American is rather an anomaly here..yet it takes an Aussie, or a Kiwi over 20 hours to get here, and there are no direct flights. We've met a ton of them, and no one seems to think it odd they flew all this way to spend a brief time here in . I now know why. The Anzac campaign of 1915 world war one. It lasted eight months and cost 500,000 lives. That is half a million people dead, an entire graduating class of the largest university in Istanbul gone before many of them would have even been old enough to drive today. I'd heard of Brighton beach, I had no idea it was off the coast of Turkey. Th soldiers were supposed to have landed here, but missed. This and many other small "what if's" and "if only's" led to a fruitless battle where the Turks were determined to keep their homeland, and the Allied forces, just wouldn't quit. One solider wrote: "I saw a Turk today, he looks just as human as I, why are we killing them?" they traded cigarette papers for tobacco, shared water and food, clapped to each others songs by night, and got to the business of shooting each other by day. The trenches were close enough to each other you could easily carry on a conversation, and could even tell by the inflection of the voices if something (an attack) was immanent. This was a battle that has shaped the history of Australia, Turkey, and New Zealand, and was something I had no clue of until today. To see the pain of another countries history, something that has colored the view of their world, yet to be so removed from it...is a very sobering experience. I felt almost like a gawker going by a tragedy on a freeway. Both sides lost so much, and gained nothing..at least nothing at that time. Now through this common pain, the nations have formed a bond, and though they were on opposite sides of the battle lines, the pain is mutual. The sadness shared, and the determination to remember the insanity, the brutality and absurd loss that is war is a lesson all who travel here carry with them. The reality of the pages in the history books becomes a real experience that remains part of your soul. Something you remember forever. Bit of a heavy day for moms birthday! We did have a bit of raki to celebrate. And now, off to Istanbul! And we've been bus-wacked. Farfegnugen. Plus side, we're only going 1 way, everyone else did Istanbul, and back. This is a rather common phenomenon here, somehow the bus driver knows who's going where, who's not coming back, and where we're dropping one person off or picking another up. Sometimes a tourist, other times a local...if you're headed the right direction, people catch a ride! Nother plus, it's a tour bus (no pit stench!) down side...5 hours till we arrive. Blogging time!
Quotes:
"We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace." -William Gladstone
"When my heart is at peace, the world is at peace." -Chinese Proverb
"There never was a good war or bad peace." -Benjamin Franklin
"Peace is always beautiful." -Walt Whitman
"It is no longer good enough to cry peace, we must act peace, live peace, and live in peace." -Shenandoah proverb
Info on Gallipoli campaign:
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/the-gallipoli-campaign/introduction
http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/overview_gf.htm
And there's a movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082432/ (starring Mel Gibson)
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