ISTANBUL - Australian Prime Minister John Howard Tuesday thanked his Turkish counterpart for the successful commemoration of the ill-fated landings by Australian and New Zealand Army Corps on Turkey's Gallipoli peninsula 90 years ago, Anatolia news agency reported.
Howard and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meeting here Tuesday, also agreed to set up a joint Turkey-Australia commission to organise the centenary Gallipoli commemoration ceremonies in 2015, a Turkish official told Anatolia.
The two prime ministers joined Britain's Prince Charles, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and tens of thousands of Australian and New Zealanders for Monday's 90th commemoration ceremonies at Anzac Cove, named to commemorate the ill-fated landings by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) on April 25, 1915.
The landing marked the start of a deadly nine-month campaign to wrest the strategic Dardanelles Strait from Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, which was then allied to Austria and Germany.
It ended in the defeat and withdrawal of the Allied forces and the deaths of some 86,000 Turks along with more than 35,000 Allied troops, including 11,410 Anzacs, as well as Britons, Frenchmen and Indians.
04/26/2005 18:32 GMT