A prominent Greek academic is set to explore how evolving political narratives in Turkey are reshaping the commemoration of one of the most significant campaigns of the First World War. Gallipoli rewritten: Turkey’s new battle for the ANZAC memory in an upcoming online lecture.
The Gallipoli campaign remains one of the most defining and contested operations of the war. Widely viewed as a failure for British and French forces, it holds profound national significance for Australia and New Zealand through the ANZAC legacy.
Professor Vlasis Vlasidis, assistant professor at the University of Macedonia, will deliver a lecture titled “Gallipoli and evolving commemoration – the new Turkish perspective” on Thursday 23 August at 7pm AEST (12pm Athens time). The presentation will be streamed online via YouTube and Facebook and conducted in English.
The lecture will examine how the memory of Gallipoli has developed over the past century, with particular focus on Turkey, where recent changes have begun to reshape the commemorative landscape.
In the decades following the war, remembrance of Gallipoli evolved into a shared, albeit distinct, experience. Veterans from Britain and across the Commonwealth regularly returned to the battlefields, visiting cemeteries established by the Imperial War Graves Commission. By the late 20th century, tens of thousands of visitors from Australia, New Zealand and Britain were attending annual Anzac Day commemorations in Çanakkale.
At the same time, Turkish remembrance followed its own trajectory, with separate ceremonies and memorials reflecting its national experience of the campaign.
However, over the past decade, notable changes have emerged under the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Large-scale museums dedicated to individual battles have been constructed, while new monuments prominently featuring Mustafa Kemal Atatürk have been installed alongside existing British and ANZAC memorials.
These developments, together with expanded interpretive displays, are viewed by some observers as reducing the visibility of ANZAC and British perspectives at key historical sites.
Concerns have reportedly been raised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and veterans’ organisations, with some suggesting the changes may be contributing to a decline in visitor numbers in recent years.
The upcoming lecture seeks to unpack these developments, offering insight into how national memory, politics and heritage continue to intersect at Gallipoli more than a century after the conflict.
