Kemal Atatürk Memorial, Canberra
The Kemal Atatürk Memorial is a memorial directly opposite the Australian War Memorial on Anzac Parade, the principal memorial and ceremonial parade in Canberra, the capital of Australia.
Kemal Atatürk Memorial in Canberra. | |
| 35.283°S 149.148°E | |
| Location | Canberra, Australia |
|---|---|
| Designer | PDCM Pty Ltd |
| Material | Granite |
| Completion date | 1985 |
It is named after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) who, as a Lieutenant Colonel, commanded the Ottoman 19th Infantry Division when it resisted the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Arı Burnu on the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915 during World War I. He started the Turkish War of Independence, and went on to be the founder of the Republic of Turkey and its first president, receiving the honorific Atatürk ("Father of the Turks") by the Turkish parliament.
In 1985, seventy years after the Gallipoli Campaign, the Turkish Government recognised the name "Anzac Cove" for the place on the peninsula where the Australian and New Zealand troops landed on 25 April 1915.
In return for this gesture, the Australian Government established the memorial garden, around the Kemal Atatürk Memorial, that honours the heroism and self-sacrifice of the Turkish and Anzac soldiers who took part in that bitterly fought campaign. This is the only memorial to an enemy commander on Anzac Parade.