Erdogan hails Canakkale victory

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday attended the commemoration ceremonies in Canakkale on the occasion of the 98th anniversary of the victory  against the attack by allied fleets on the Dardanelles Straits during World War  I. The ceremonies were also attended by many ministers and military officials, as  well as Australian Ambassador to Ankara Ian Biggs, Australian military attaché Col. Jim Buras, British military attaché Col. Richard Robinson, British CWGC’s director manager David Bennet, advisor for the Australian embassy Matt Mc Kean and Australian Ambassador to Canakkale Nicholas Sergi. Speaking at the  ceremony, Erdogan said that the spirit of the Gallipoli Campaign or the  Canakkale Battles of the World War I was the defining characteristic of Turkey's  understanding of a nation and nationalism. "Those who could not understand the Canakkale spirit could not understand nation and our nationalism either," Erdogan said, adding that those who could not understand the determination for solidarity and self-sacrifice in Canakkale could not understand the brotherhood  in Turkey. "A manifest of our nation and our notion of nationalism was  composed while a legend that would change the direction of history was being written in  Canakkale. The Canakkale Victory was not the victory of a single ethnic background, a nation or a race, rather the victory of all sister nations and all  brethren in Anatolia, Thrace, Turkey and the world," Erdogan noted.