YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS: On April 25, ANZAC Day, is the National Day of Remembrance in Australia. On that day Australia marks its military “baptism day”. April 25 was officially called ANZAC Day in 1916 and in 1920s it was approved as the remembrance day of the 60,000 Australians, killed in the war.

On April 25 1915 the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) under the British command disembarked at Gallipoli peninsula to make way to the Black Sea and to capture Constantinople, according to Winston Churchill’s plan.

The Battle of Gallipoli started on April 25 1915 one day after the arrest of the Armenian intelligentsia and ended on January 9 1916. Within this period 8709 Australian and 2721 New Zealanders were killed in the Gallipoli Battle and about 217 soldiers became the Ottoman Army’s prisoners of war.

Another prisoner of war, George Ernest Kerr, who was taken hostage on November 20 1915, was kept in Afyonkarahisar along with other hostages. In his memories he wrote: “Earlier in 1915 thousands of Armenians were killed or deported by the Turkish troops under “ethnic cleansing”. The floor of the prison camp was covered most likely by their remnants”. 

A.E.2 was one of the two Australian submarines, which participated in the war. The major part of the staff of the submarine was taken hostage. Among them was John Harrison Witt, who was kept in Afyonkarahisar along with other hostages. On August 18 1915 he made the following note in his journal:

“All the Armenians have been deported from the city. The reason was that they were Christians and the entire trade of the city was in their hands. In this country people have quite sharp feelings towards the Christians. Within this period thousands of Christians were deported from the big cities and were left to starvation and thousands were massacred”.