Gallipoli mayor invites Nicole Kidman to visit

The mayor of Gelibolu in northwestern Turkey on March 9 announced plans to invite Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman to the town.      

The Australian actress is currently promoting Turkey as a tourist destination in a newspaper advertising campaign and recently expressed an interest in visiting Gallipoli, known as Gelibolu in Turkey.    
  
In a recent interview, Kidman was asked about where she would like to visit in Turkey, to which she responded: "You are waiting for me to say Istanbul, but you're wrong." 

"We share a common history, so I most want to see Gallipoli."      

The town's mayor, Mustafa Özacar, subsequently told state-run Anadolu Agency that it would be a "pleasure" to host the Oscar-winning actress.      

"We would be pleased to see Nicole Kidman in Gelibolu," Özacar said. 

"We are looking forward to sending an official invitation as soon as possible," he added.      

The World War I Gallipoli campaign was a defining moment in the history of modern Australia and Turkey.
 
Nearly 9,000 Australian troops died in the fighting in 1915, compared to nearly 87,000 Ottoman soldiers, as the Allied powers tried to force their way through the Dardanelles to reach Istanbul and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war.