Gallipoli/Gelibolu

In Asia, Europe, Turquia 2002 On 19/09/2002 One comment

I was invited by a travel agency to do a tour in Gallipoli (Gelibolu in Turkish), I would go with two more Australian girls. We left early in the morning since the place is far away. After two hours driving we stopped to have breakfast and continued to Gallipoli. We did a quick stop in the small city, we saw the port and continued to the war museum.

This area is known to be a good defense place in Turkey. It is a peninsula easy to regulate the ships going in and out. The most important historical event was during the World War I when many Australians and New Zealanders (Anzac – Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) died. They landed on the wrong place and were vanished by the Turkish army who was waiting on the top of the hill. For me what it is interesting here it is the amount of monuments, cemeteries and museum commemorative to the world war I. Every few kilometers there is a monument explaining the war. They even have trenches on exhibition. I asked our guide about who paid to construct all this. He answered me it was the British (maybe on regret).

The amount of Australian and New Zealander tourist is huge. In every attraction buses stop and the crowd get off. I didn’t know a battle could generate so much tourism. I liked when our guide said that for them (Australian and New Zealander) this battle was very important because it was maybe the only time they were in a war. But for the Turkish the battle had no importance because they are used to the was, they had been fighting for centuries. This huge amount of tourists made me realize the once more the war is a good business exploited by the tourism industry.