摘要: Justification of Outstanding Universal Value　　The Gallipoli Peninsula is located at the intersection of three distinct cultural zones, Southeastern Europe (the Balkans), the Aegean and Anatolia. This

Justification of Outstanding Universal Value

　　The Gallipoli Peninsula is located at the intersection of three distinct cultural zones, Southeastern Europe (the Balkans), the Aegean and Anatolia. This implies that it is distant and isolated from the heartland of each cultural formation, and therefore marginal to all. As such, the Peninsula stands as a frontier or a barrier of cultures. During periods of political and economic integration of these cultural and ecological zones however, the Peninsula stands as a meeting place or a three-way cultural bridge-head on a major maritime route.

　　The Peninsula can be viewed also as a cultural bridge par excellence, transmitting evidence of earlier times and earlier times and earlier occupations, from the early Neolithic way of life today. The evidence suggests that once the Peninsula was partially settled, invasions using the so-called land bridge between Europe and Asia began: Thracians from Europe, Persians from Asia, Alexander the Great, the Galatians and Byzantines from Europe and Ottomans from Asia Just as the Peninsula forms a cultural bridge, so does the Dardanelles, linking north (the Black Sea) and south (the Mediterranean). In more stable times, the Strait that borders the east coast of the Peninsula acted as a cultural barrier between Europe and Asia, allowing Asian city-states and the early empires of, for example, the Hittites and Myceneans to flourish. The passage also acted as a defense or buffer zone for ancient Anatolia against the invasion of the Sea People, Thracians and Romans in succession, and in the 20th century, against the English, Australian and New Zealanders during the battles of the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli.

　　1915 Çanakkale and Gallipoli battles hindered the Allied forces from taking İstanbul, paralyzing and perhaps dismantling the Ottoman (ie Turkish) Empire; their helping the Russian Empire against Germany and thus ending the First World War for another two years.

　　There are national commemoration services and there are those with an international character. Not only Turks but also the Australians and new Zealanders come to commemorate the Gallipoli battles and their fallen. The events of 1915 are deeply engraved respectively in the national consciousness of the members specifically of these societies, without necessarily accompanied with feeling of enmity to the other side, but of respect and understanding.

　　From the Troian War to the 1915 Dardanelles (Çanakkale) battles of the First World War, the motive for belligerencies always remained the same: controlling the Peninsula, a channel-gate and a bridge-heat in one. Nations, armies, commanders and heroes, however, changed. A large collection of major historical personalities ranging from Xerxes, Agamemnon, Priamos, Alexander the Great, Çaka Bey, and Mehmet the Conqueror, to Churchill, Liman Von Sanders, Ian Hamilton, Enver Paşa, Kazım Karabekir and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk have been involved in the area, either to attack, to defend, to fortify or to cross.

　　Criterion (vi): Çanakkale and Gallipoli battles constitute a landmark in the world military and political history. This is frequently acknowledged. The significance of these battles in the world cultural history however, is not well known. Examples of battles which turn prejudiced foes into admiring and respecting counterparts, and make war look more like a sports event or an adventure, and a the same time offer periods of calmness allowing individuals to introspect and explore the meaning of life and human experience through their immediate environment (rich in archaeology, history, flora and fauna), are extremely rare. Indeed, with large number of personal diaries kept, letters and poems written, observations sketched, sceneries painted, collections made and instances of friendly encounters with the foe. Gallipoli battles constitute the only where ‘war’ turns into a unique social and cultural happening and becomes an open invitation for mutual understanding, respect and tolerance, better said, for ‘peace’.