Istanbul--Turkey on Friday hosts world leaders to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Gallipoli, nine months of remorseless slaughter that achieved nothing on the ground but helped forge national identity in societies up to the present day.
The Turkish authorities are hoping to send a message of peace in the two-day commemorations of the World War I battle but also emphasise its patriotic importance ahead of the country's June 7 legislative election.
Allied forces including Australian, British and New Zealand troops fought against the German-backed Ottoman army in what ended as one of the worst Allied retreats of the war.
But a dark shadow is cast by the 100th anniversary, also on April 24, for the start of the campaign of mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
The Armenian authorities, which regard the massacres as genocide, have bitterly accused Turkey of bringing forward the Gallipoli ceremonies by one day from April 25 to hide an unwelcome passage in its history.
AFP
