The Karayörükdere Cemetery

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IF STONES COULD SPEAK - ANZAC

… Take a few more steps and reach junction between trench and communication trench. Come upon a group of soldiers. Go to their side. The wounded soldier is at their feet. He has been hit in the mouth. O my God !! May you protect all of us !! The bullet has emerged from the back of his neck. As he breathes, blood gushes out of his mouth and streams into a puddle already formed on the ground. A medic is trying to bandage him. “It is no use, my son. He’s finished. May God forgive his sins. Turn him on his side so the blood can flow more easily and spare him further pain and discomfort” I tell him. The men do as I say and stare at me. They are astonished I can talk calmly and with such composure. One can see horror in their eyes. As for us, we have been exposed to such scenes so many times that we are used to them. We have had a surfeit of horror !!

"Bloody Ridge", The diary of 2^nd Lt Mehmed Fasih, acting commander of the 7^th Company, 47^th regiment, 16^th Division, Northern Group of the 5^th army, (Istanbul 2003), translated by H.B. Danışman, p.170

Last updated : 01/12/06

Martin Alfred Brooke (Auckland Mounted Riffles) :

E. W. Barttett (11th L H Regiment) :
J.J. Ryan (AIF 04th Battalion) :
William Arthur Cooper (AIF 06th Battalion) :
John Henry Norris (AIF 16th Battalion) :
Edwin Walter Parker (AIF 20th Battalion) :

KARAYÖRÜKDERE CEMETERY
KARAYÖRÜK DERESİ ŞEHİTLİĞİ

In this cemetery, sited behind the then front held by the 48th Regiment of the Turkish 16th Division, are buried soldiers who died in fighting in the sector from May onwards. Apart from the soldiers from the 48th Regiment, men from the 63rd, 72nd and 77th Regiments that at times served in the same area are also buried here. In total the names of 1153 soldiers are listed as lying in the cemetery.

"Gallipoli Battlefield Guide", (Istanbul 2006), Gürsel Göncü & Şahin Aldoğan, p.23

“The troops we faced in the trenches were always alert and seemed well-disciplined. We had to respect them”
“They fought very fairly-like us were good honest troops"
"Good honest soldiers-Brave. Not afraid to die, poorly equipt and poorly fed.”
"Treated them with great respect”
“There was no hate or bitternes and we referred to them as Johnie Turks”
“Very sad that we needed to fight them”

"Johnny Turk from the Anzacs' Pens", (Ankara 2005), Professor A. Mete Tunçoku, p. 213-370

In 1991, while in Australia, Professor A. Mete Tunçoku presented the surviving Australian & New Zealand veterans with an inquiry. One of the questions was : “What were your opinions and impressions of the Turks while you were fighting in Gallipolli ?”