The Memorial, as the main attraction in the Gallipoli Peninsula, is located on the Eskihisarlık Burnu (De Tot’s Battery). Out of 37 projects, the project prepared by Doğan Erginbaş, İsmail Utkular and Feridun Kip was selected at a competition and the foundations of the Memorial were laid on April 17, 1954. Opened on August 21, 1960 (the 45th Anniversary of the Second Anafartalar Victory) the Martyrs’ Memorial of the Dardanelles commemorates the Turkish soldiers who were martyred at the Battle of Gallipoli and preserves their memory. As the Architect Doğan Erginbaş said, “the Memorial represents ascension of the martyrs coming from all regions”. Reliefs reflecting the moments of the battle are found over the bases. Commemoration ceremonies are organized every March 18 in the parade ground of the memorial with the participation of citizens and high state officials from every corner of the country.
The symbolic graves located behind the memorial were opened to visitors in 2007. The Cemetery contains the names of our 59,408 soldiers who were martyred at the Battle of the Gallipoli and whose names have been established until today. A 45 m relief representing the timeline of the battles is situated in front of the symbolic martyrs’ cemetery. After the relief is a marble monolith including the grave of the Unknown Soldier and the words uttered by Mustafa Kemal for the soldiers of the Allied powers in 1934. The skull of a Turkish soldier brought to Australia by an Anzac soldier following the Battles of Arıburnu was delivered to Turkey on March 10, 2003 and was interred at its current location on March 18, 2003.
