Prayers in Çanakkale, whispers in Edirnekap?

In the historic Edirnekap? Military Cemetery in Istanbul, young soldiers lay side-by-side, resting in a sea of flowers and flags. Their mothers and fathers silently pray and shed tears; high school students greet them by giving flowers and hugging them. Most of the fallen soldiers were born after 1980. Their handsome pictures briefly smile from their tombstones. Killed in ??rnak, killed in Hakkari, killed in Northern Iraq? Their lives were cut too short, their stories still untold.

Turkey, probably for the first time in its contemporary history, is commemorating the battle fought in Çanakkale and its heroes on a grand scale. It is the first time that the Turkish government and public, regardless of political differences, are sharing the pride and grief of 1915. And we have to thank our Anzac friends for this. Without them coming to our shores every year, praying for their grandfathers, their loved ones in dawn ceremonies, Turkey could never be brave enough to face the losses of the Great War.

The Çanakkale centennial commemoration gives us an opportunity to reflect on our losses and our victories. It is chance for all of us to see the people who fought, their families, the economic difficulties and the military determination to keep the Ottoman Empire alive. Çanakkale was the beginning of the end of the Empire, and also was the first seed of a new nation emerging. Lt. Col. Mustafa Kemal and his soldiers understood the magnitude of the firepower of the Western Powers. They also knew defending a homeland means more than guns and warships.

To remember all of the fallen in Çanakkale, under the bright sun but brutal cold of this March morning, the mother and father of 1st Lt. Gökhan Yavuz came to his tombstone in Edirnekapi Military Cemetery. ...