ISTANBUL
A major new exhibition on the Gallipoli Campaign, opened in Istanbul on Monday, marking the centennial commemorations of the iconic conflict.
Organized by Turkey's Is Bank Museum, the exhibition hosts military objects and uniforms, pictures showing life during the war and documents compiled from the domestic and foreign archives.
The exhibition, entitled "From The Depths to The Trenches: Gallipoli 1915", focuses on the unknown history of the war.
Professor Haluk Oral, the exhibition advisor, said he had been interested in Gallipoli for 30 years.
Speaking during a press meeting on Monday, Oral said: "The exhibition does not just aim to tell history – everybody knows it – but it actually wants to reveal the details of the war which the majority of people do not know exactly."
Stating that the each object is a door opening onto history, Oral said: "The exhibition will achieve its purpose if it can make visitors to feel and sense those days."
"Although there are many written books about the campaign, there are still many stories to tell and secrets to disclose," he said.
The 1915 battle took place in the Dardanelles strait in Canakkale province's district of Gallipoli.
The victory against the Allied forces gave Turkey a massive moral boost that enabled it to wage a war of independence and eventually, in 1923, form a republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.
Savas Karakas, curator of the exhibition, said he is also a grandson of Gallipoli war veteran Hilmi Coskun.
"My grandfather named me ‘Savas,’ which means war in English, to keep the war memories alive" he said.
Karakas, defining all the war ruins as time capsules sent from the past to the present, added: "Within the scope of this exhibition, we will try to tell the sufferings of those people who sacrificed themselves for us."
The exhibition, located in in Eminonu district of Istanbul, is open every day except Monday between March 7 and August 15, 2015.
