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ANKARA: Turkey Invites World Leaders, Including Armenian President,

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  • ANKARA: Turkey Invites World Leaders, Including Armenian President,

    TURKEY INVITES WORLD LEADERS, INCLUDING ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, TO GALLIPOLI COMMEMORATION

    Daily Sabah, Turkey
    Jan 16 2015

    DAILY SABAH WITH WIRES
    ISTANBUL

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet
    Davutoglu have sent letters to 102 countries, inviting heads of
    states, to attend commemoration ceremonies in Turkey marking the
    100th anniversary of the World War I Gallipoli campaign this year on
    23-24 April.

    The invitation letters have also been sent to the U.S. President Barack
    Obama and the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, to participate in
    the Gallipoli centenary.

    "We fought as a kind together. That's why we have invited Sargsyan,"
    a government official told the daily Hurriyet, referring to the
    presence of Armenian minorities alongside Turks and other peoples in
    the Ottoman army.

    The ceremonies coincide exactly with the 1915 incidents of the
    World War I. Armenians and the Armenian diaspora, who plan to mark
    the anniversary on April 24, want the incidents to be recognized as
    genocide, something Turkey has vehemently rejected.

    Were Sargsyan to accept Erdogan's invitation, his presence at Gallipoli
    would mean he would likely be outside of Armenia for the commemorations
    for the tragedy.

    The Gallipoli campaign was one of the most famous battles of World
    War I when Ottoman troops resisted an invading Allied Force seeking
    control of the Gallipoli peninsula on the Dardanelles strait.

    April 25, known as Anzac Day, marks the landing of Allied forces into
    the peninsula, thus the start of the land campaign.

    The founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, as a
    division commander who stopped the initial advance of Anzac troops
    and confined them into a thin land strip along the shore, made his
    name as a heroic military leader.

    Britain, Australia and New Zealand want a flamboyant ceremony to
    commemorate the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli.

    The prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand, as well as Britain's
    Prince Charles, with his sons, are expected to take part in the
    ceremony due to attract 8,500 Australians and 2,000 New Zealanders,
    the newspaper said.

    Last year Erdogan, then premier, offered an unprecedented expression
    of condolence for the massacres of Armenians.

    http://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/2015/01/16/turkey-to-invite-sarghsyan-and-obama-to-gallipoli-commemoration

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