Gallipoli

Coordinates: 40°21′N 26°27′E / 40.350°N 26.450°E / 40.350; 26.450
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Thracian Chersonesos
)
This article is about the peninsula. For other uses, see Gallipoli (disambiguation).

Satellite image of the Gallipoli peninsula and surrounding area
ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli

The Gallipoli peninsula (/ɡəˈlɪpəli, ɡæ-/;[1] Turkish: Gelibolu Yarımadası; Greek: Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, romanized: Chersónisos tis Kallípolis) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east.

Gallipoli is the Italian form of the

Latin
: Chersonesus Thracica).

The peninsula runs in a south-westerly direction into the Aegean Sea, between the

stadia in breadth[7] or about 6.5 km (4.0 mi), but the length of the peninsula from this wall to its southern extremity, Cape Mastusia, was 420 stadia[7]
or about 77.5 km (48.2 mi).

History

Antiquity and Middle Ages

Map of the Thracian Chersonese

In ancient times, the Gallipoli Peninsula was known as the

Hellespont
.

According to

Miltiades the Younger, about 524 BC. The peninsula was abandoned to the Persians in 493 BC after the beginning of the Greco-Persian Wars
(499–478 BC).

The Persians were eventually expelled, after which the peninsula was for a time ruled by Athens, which enrolled it into the

Macedon, whose king Philip II
sought possession. It was eventually ceded to Philip in 338 BC.

After the death of Philip's son

Attalid dynasty in 133 BC it passed again to the Romans, who from 129 BC administered it in the Roman province of Asia. It was subsequently made a state-owned territory (ager publicus) and during the reign of the emperor Augustus
it was imperial property.

Map of the peninsula and its surroundings

The Thracian Chersonese was part of the

Attila the Hun invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula during one of the last stages of his grand campaign that year. He captured both Callipolis and Sestus.[9] Aside from a brief period from 1204 to 1235, when it was controlled by the Republic of Venice, the Byzantine Empire
ruled the territory until 1356. During the night between 1 and 2 March 1354, a strong earthquake destroyed the city of Gallipoli and its city walls, weakening its defenses.

Ottoman era

Further information: Sanjak of Gelibolu

Ottoman conquest

Within a month after the devastating 1354 earthquake the

Vilayet of Adrianople, with about thirty thousand inhabitants: comprising Greeks, Turks, Armenians and Jews.[11]

Crimean War (1853–1856)

The port of Gallipoli, c. 1880

Gallipoli became a major encampment for British and French forces in 1854 during the Crimean War, and the harbour was also a stopping-off point between the western Mediterranean and Istanbul (formerly Constantinople).[12][13]

In March 1854 British and French engineers constructed an 11.5 km (7.1 mi) line of defence to protect the peninsula from a possible Russian attack and secure control of the route to the Mediterranean Sea.[14]: 414 

First Balkan War (1912–1913)

During the First Balkan War, the 1913 Battle of Bulair and several minor skirmishes took place where the Ottoman army fought in the Greek villages near Gallipoli".[15][16][17] The Report of the International Commission on the Balkan Wars mention destruction and massacres in the area by the Ottoman army against Greek and Bulgarian population.[18]

The Ottoman Government, under the pretext that a village was within the firing line, ordered its evacuation within three hours. The residents abandoned everything they possessed, left their village and went to Gallipoli. Seven of the Greek villagers who stayed two minutes later than the three-hour limit allowed for the evacuation were shot by the soldiers. After the end of the Balkan War the exiles were allowed to return. But as the Government allowed only the Turks to rebuild their houses and furnish them, the exiled Greeks were compelled to remain in Gallipoli.[19]

World War I: Gallipoli Campaign (1914–1918)

Main articles:
Gallipoli Campaign and Gallipoli Peninsula Historical Site
Landing at Gallipoli in April 1915
The Sphinx overlooking Anzac Cove

During World War I (1914-1918), French, British, and allied forces (Australian, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Irish and Indian) fought the

Russia
. The Ottomans set up defensive fortifications along the peninsula and contained the invading forces.

In early 1915, attempting to seize a strategic advantage in World War I by capturing Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), the British authorised an attack on the peninsula by French, British, and British Empire forces. The first Australian troops landed at ANZAC Cove early in the morning of 25 April 1915. After eight months of heavy fighting the last Allied soldiers withdrew by 9 January 1916.

The campaign, one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war, is considered by historians as a humiliating Allied failure. Turks regard it as a defining moment in their nation's history: a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence[citation needed] and the founding of the Republic of Turkey[citation needed] eight years later under President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who first rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli.

The Ottoman Empire instituted the

Gallipoli Star
as a military decoration in 1915 and awarded it throughout the rest of World War I.

The campaign was the first major military action of Australia and New Zealand (or ANZACs) as independent dominions. The date of the landing, 25 April, is known as "ANZAC Day". It remains the most significant commemoration of military casualties and "returned soldiers" in Australia and New Zealand.

On the Allied side, one of the promoters of the expedition was Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, whose bullish optimism caused damage to his reputation that took years to repair.

Whilst the underlying strategic concept of the campaign was sound, the military forces of the WWI lacked the logistical, technological and tactical capabilities to undertake an operation of this scope against a determined, well equipped defender.

The all arms coordination and logistical capabilities required to successfully prosecute such a campaign would only be achieved three decades later, during the successful Allied amphibious invasions of Europe and the Pacific during WW2.

Prior to the Allied landings in April 1915,

labour battalions of the Ottoman army). The rest were "scattered… among the farms like ownerless cattle."[citation needed
]

The Metropolitan of Gallipoli wrote on 17 July 1915 that the extermination of the Christian refugees was methodical.

Muhacirs appeared in the villages even before the Greek inhabitants were deported and stoned the houses and threatened the inhabitants that they would kill them if they did not leave.[23]

Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)

Greek troops occupied Gallipoli on 4 August 1920 during the

Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22, considered part of the Turkish War of Independence. After the Armistice of Mudros of 30 October 1918 it became a Greek prefecture centre as Kallipolis. However, Greece was forced to cede Eastern Thrace after the Armistice of Mudanya
of October 1922. Gallipoli was briefly handed over to British troops on 20 October 1922, but finally returned to Turkish rule on 26 November 1922.

In 1920, after the defeat of the

Crimean Peninsula. From there, many went to European countries, such as Yugoslavia
, where they found refuge.

There are now many cemeteries and war memorials on the Gallipoli peninsula.

Turkish Republic

Between 1923 and 1926 Gallipoli became the centre of Gelibolu Province, comprising the districts of Gelibolu, Eceabat, Keşan and Şarköy. After the dissolution of the province, it became a district centre in Çanakkale Province.

Notable people

  • Ahmed Bican
    (1398 – c. 1466), author
  • Piri Reis (1465/70 – 1553[24]), admiral, geographer and cartographer
  • Mustafa Âlî
    (1541–1600), Ottoman historian, politician and writer
  • Sofia Vembo (1910–1978), Greek singer and actress

References

  1. ISBN 3-12-539683-2
  2. ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). "Καλλίπολις". A Greek–English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 28 August 2020 – via Perseus Digital Library Project.
  3. ISBN 9780674990999
    .
  4. ISBN 9780674993075
    .
  5. ^ Plinius Secundus, Gaius (1855). Bostock, John; Riley, Henry Thomas (eds.). The Natural History. London: H. G. Bohn. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  6. ISBN 9780674991101. Archived
    from the original on 25 December 2021. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
  7. ^ a b Herodotus, The Histories, vi. 36; Xenophon, ibid.; Pseudo-Scylax, Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, 67 (PDF Archived 12 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine)
  8. ^ Herodotus, vi. 34 Archived 25 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine; Nepos, Cornelius, Lives of Eminent Commanders, "Miltiades", 1 Archived 7 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ISBN 978-1844139156. Archived
    from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  10. ISBN 1-4013-0850-3
    .
  11. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Callipolis". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  12. ^ "Crimea". Archived from the original on 22 February 2006. Retrieved 11 October 2006.
  13. ^ "Charles Usherwood's Service Journal, 1852–1856: despatch". victorianweb.org. Archived from the original on 28 November 2002. Retrieved 2 July 2006.
  14. ^ Porter, Maj Gen Whitworth (1889). History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol I. Chatham: The Institution of Royal Engineers.
  15. ISBN 978-1785334320. Archived
    from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  16. ISBN 978-1-78920-450-6. Archived
    from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  17. ^ Brown, Carroll N; Papadopoulos, Alexander (1919). Persecutions of the Greeks in Turkey before the European war. Oxford university press. p. 52.
  18. ^ Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan War. Washington, D.C. 1914. p. 132.
  19. ^ a b c d Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey, 1914–1918. Constantinople [London, Printed by the Hesperia Press]. 1919.
  20. ISBN 9780674058538. Archived
    from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2021 – via Google Books.
  21. ^
    ISBN 978-1442223196. Archived
    from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  22. ^ "The Meaning of Gallipoli to Hellenism". Archived from the original on 15 October 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  23. ISBN 978-0674916456. Archived
    from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  24. ^ "Ana Sayfa" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 February 2020.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gallipoli (Turkey).

40°21′N 26°27′E / 40.350°N 26.450°E / 40.350; 26.450

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