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| Down Under |
| Australian Tourists Angry Over Roadworks |
| 2005-04-20 |
| AUSTRALIANS arriving at Gallipoli for Anzac Day commemorations have been left shocked by the desecration of the historic landing site. Work the Federal Government requested in a bid to prepare Anzac Cove for the 90th anniversary of the landing has backfired - instead leaving visitors to the battlefield angry and confused. "It was pretty bad - sites like that should be left as they were in their original condition," tourist Doug Burns said. The Wollstonecraft man arrived early in Turkey ahead of next Monday's 90th anniversary and toured the battlefield yesterday. "It is pretty unrecognisable from what it was. There was mud in the water. "I don't have anyone buried here but I can see how people who have would feel about it. I can't see the benefits of getting people to the site justifies this. People could walk a few kilometres to get here." The Daily Telegraph last month revealed repair work at Anzac Cove unearthed human remains - a fact denied by Prime Minister John Howard for more than five weeks. He finally admitted this week that the Government had asked the Turkish Government last year to complete the work, worried about the safety of more than 20,000 visitors. But on Sunday night he asked Turkish authorities to stop road works after being informed a wall would be built above Anzac Cove which would severely alter the appearance of the site. Australian historian and journalist Bill Sellars, who first revealed that bones had been disturbed, said last night visitors were "stopping in their tracks" when they saw the new roadwork and carpark construction. "They just stand there and say, 'What the hell?" Mr Sellars said. "Anzac Cove is gone. "Before (the roadworks constructed by the Turks) you could stand on the road above Anzac Cove and look up into the hills and you would have the same view as Australian and New Zealand soldiers would have had on April 25, 1915. "Now, it's no longer physically possible to step off the beach and follow the path of the first Australians who landed. It's deeply upsetting, and it's upsetting for many people." Mr Sellars, who has lived in Turkey for 10 years - three of those on a peninsula just 10km from Anzac Cove - believes maintenance had to be carried out on the road, but that it was botched. The Government attacked the revelations before being forced into a humiliating admission that they were accurate. Opposition Leader Kim Beazley blamed the Government for requesting the roadworks be done "without the sensible advice of archaeologists". |
| Posted by:God Save The World |
| #1 There's nothing you can do, guys. I love y'all, but it's the Turks' territory, and if they want to be jerks, well, there's nothing that says they can't be jerks. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-04-20 10:40:19 AM |