Gallipoli Exhumations?

[MelPack]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/22909424/anzac-day-triggers-fresh-calls-to-exhume-mass-graves-of-fallen-gallipoli-soldiers/

Historian and Friends of Gallipoli chairman John Basarin has been researching the battle for several years.

Using records from soldiers' diaries, he says he can pinpoint the location of two mass graves in which 200 Australians, mostly from Victoria, are buried.

Today the site is covered by olive trees and undergrowth.

"That place exists and I walked that ground and it is our thinking that there are still Australians who are buried there," he said.

"It is circumstantial evidence of course but unless you do some local investigation you'll never know."

Mr Basarin says if the mass grave is confirmed, the bodies should be exhumed and reburied, with full military honours.

Speculative or what?

[Seadog]

Mel this sounds like another Fromelles and I would be very doubtful whether the authorities wll embark on another mass exhumation and identification process.

Norman

[Peter Bennett]

There are no "unknown" headstones on Gallipoli, if these were to be exhumed and some not identified it would be creating a huge precedent.

[River97]

"Even if they are there I think [Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk had it right. He said now they've died in our country, they're our sons as well.

"They're not running around digging up their people so maybe we shouldn't either."

Let's leave them be. If this was the Western Front I would back the proposal for reburial. This is Gallipoli. 80,000 Turks have no known grave. Let's leave them be.

Cheers Andy.

[pmaasz]

I make no comment other than to quote the words on the memorial at Gallipoli:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...

You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore rest in peace, there is no difference between the

Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie

Side by side in this country of ours...

You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries,

Wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom

And are in peace.

After having lost their lives on this land

They have become our sons as well.

Atatűrk 1934

[nigelcave]

Quite. A significant number of Gallipoli CWGC cemeteries have only a limited number of named graves, with a large number buried within them who are 'unknown' - take The Farm for example. If one is going to go down the DNA line, why not start with these men?

[trajan]

The DNA line will only work if you have at least a clue as to who is buried where. DNA is a viable form of analysis with an individual or small grave site containing burials belonging to a specific group of men. Mass-graves as at Gallipoli will be far too mixed to allow such an analysis - except at extraordinary great cost, with little hope of secure identification. It can be done, of course - we now can identify descendants of the famous Otzi ice man who died some 5,000 years ago. But he was an odd one to begin with, and not only were funds available to try and track his descendants in his known place of origin (through teeth analysis), but there was a large enough data bank of comparative bio-evidence to begin with. Where would one start with the skeleton of an unknown Australian? Teeth analysis would be a start, to locate where he grew up, but then the next stage?

[Peter Bennett]

Quite. A significant number of Gallipoli CWGC cemeteries have only a limited number of named graves, with a large number buried within them who are 'unknown' - take The Farm for example. If one is going to go down the DNA line, why not start with these men?

True, all 645 of them.

The Farm was a stone shepherd's hut on the western slopes of Chunuk Bair, known to the Turks as 'Aghyl' (sheepfold), which was passed by the troops who held Chunuk Bair on 6-10 August. On 8 August, it was occupied by the 10th Gurkhas, part of the 9th Royal Warwicks, and the Maoris. The 6th East Lancashire Regiment, the 10th Hants and the 6th Royal Irish Rifles reached it next day. The 5th Connaught Rangers came up on 10 August, but the same morning, in consequence of the Turkish attack which cleared Chunuk Bair, the line was withdrawn.

The Farm Cemetery was made after the Armistice by gathering in graves scattered around the Farm and from the slopes of Chunuk Bair and Hill Q.

There are now 652 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. Special memorials commemorate seven soldiers believed to be buried among them. 645 burials are unidentified.

Not to mention Chunuk Bair itself.

CHUNUK BAIR CEMETERY was made after the Armistice on the site where the Turks had buried some of those Commonwealth soldiers who were killed on 6-8 August. It contains 632 Commonwealth burials, only ten of which are identified.