London: Wildfires across Turkey threatened World War I memorials and graves on the Gallipoli peninsula on Friday as dry, hot and windy weather conditions led to a series of blazes.
At the site where an Allied landing was beaten back by Ottoman troops in a year-long campaign in 1915, the flames reached Canterbury Cemetery, where 22 soldiers from New Zealand are interred, north of the Anzac Lone Pine memorial.
Commonwealth war graves scorched by wildfires on the Gallipoli peninsula, in Turkey.
Images of the site in northwest Turkey showed soot-blackened gravestones in a scorched garden looking out over the Aegean Sea.
The fire was brought under control by Friday. Officials said it was started by a spark from electricity lines that spread through forested areas.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which maintains raves and memorials to the dead from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India and Newfoundland, in more than 30 cemeteries on the peninsula, said all its staff were evacuated from the areas and were safe. More than 7200 Australian soldiers are buried at cemeteries or listed as missing there.
“We understand several of our commemorative and operational sites have been affected,” it said in a statement. “The full scale of the damage is not yet known, but a preliminary assessment is underway. A full assessment is likely to take some time.”
“We understand this news may cause distress, especially to those with personal connections to those commemorated, but any damage will be assessed and work to remediate it will be undertaken as soon as it is possible to do so.”
The Gallipoli sites with the largest number of Australian war graves or commemorations are: Lone Pine Memorial (4223), Lone Pine Cemetery (648), Shrapnel Valley Cemetery (516), Shell Green Cemetery (397) and Beach Cemetery (294).