Meeting – Mon 25 April 2016, 7.30pm
Gallipoli from the cliff tops
Our special guest on ANZAC Day will be Vecihi Başarın co-author of Gallipoli: The Turkish Story.
When Vecihi’s father, a Turkish army officer, took him to Gallipoli as a 10-year-old, little did he realise it would be the start of a lifetime interest in the battles that occurred there, or the path to a PhD at Deakin University. As he tells it,
“When I went to Gallipoli as a boy it was just fields, hills and the blue Aegean sea. My father said to me, ‘Son, this is where Turkey was born’ – pointing to the hills of Gallipoli.”
“Little did I know on the other side of the world in what was to become my adopted country, Australian people also felt the same way.”
It will be interesting to hear the Turkish story and how their new nation arose from Gallipoli.
