Gallipoli story has two sides
Perth exchange student Charlotte Brooks will explore her family's link to one of the most poignant moments in Australian history when she goes to Gallipoli for next year's 100th anniversary of the Anzac landing.
Duncan Chapman, acknowledged as the first man to step ashore at Anzac Cove with the 9th Royal Queen's Regiment, was the best man for Charlotte's great-grandfather Theo Troedson.
Chapman was later killed in the trenches at Pozieres, France, in 1916 aged 27.
The 17-year-old Penrhos student's great-great-uncle John Harold Theodore Wilson also fought with the Anzacs as part of the 5th Light Horse Brigade and was stationed in Cairo, defending the Suez Canal.
"It is very hard for me to imagine what it must have been like for a man not much older than myself to be fighting," Charlotte said yesterday.
"Visiting Anzac Cove will be a very emotional experience for me and will make me feel much more connected to my great-great-uncle.
"It will give me a better understanding of his experiences during World War I.
"I am also looking forward to immersing myself in Turkish culture and learning about the country's history."
Charlotte's trip will be sponsored by Albany City Rotary Club, which is also hosting Turkish teenager Feyyaz Aydin, 17.
His stay in Albany, part of Australia's Rotary exchange program which has operated for 50 years, was timed to coincide with last month's Anzac centenary in the Great Southern city and he has been helping Charlotte prepare for her visit to his country.
Feyyaz has met Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Premier Colin Barnett and Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and said his Australian journey had been made more special because of his own family's wartime background.
His grandmother told him her father and uncle fought at Gallipoli, his great-grandfather was a doctor in the war and lived until he was 107 and his great-great- uncle was an army officer at Gallipoli who died in the war.
"Coming to Australia in the 100th year after the war is a big opportunity for me, especially being in Albany, the place where the ships left Australia for Turkey.
"In Turkey, in my school history class and older people in my family would often tell me the war story from the Turkish side.
"Now I'm in Australia I am learning and understanding other parts of the story.
Feyyaz said walking to the Ataturk Memorial in Albany with Turkey's Canberra-based army attache was very emotional for both of them.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a Turkish army officer and the reformist first president of Turkey.
"He is our most famous hero," Feyyaz said.
Rotary District 9465 youth exchange chairman Ross Grafton said six Australian districts were hosting Turkish students to recognise the significant history and friendship between the countries because of the Anzacs.
In Australia I am learning other parts of the story." Student Feyyaz Adin
