「ガリポリの戦い」で沈没した戦艦群を一般公開　トルコの海中博物館

【ガリポリＡＦＰ＝時事】トルコで今月、海中博物館がオープンし、同国西岸沖でダイビングをすると巨大な戦艦群を見学できる。第１次世界大戦中の「ガリポリの戦い」で沈没した軍艦だ。（写真は「ガリポリの戦い」で沈んだ軍艦。ガリポリ史跡当局提供）
　「展示」されているのは、英国海軍の軍艦「マジェスティック」をはじめ１４隻。ガリポリ半島は古代から戦場になることが多く、沖合は艦船の墓場になっている。
　半島の横を地中海からロシア側に延びるダーダネルス海峡をめぐり、最後の大規模な戦闘となった１９１５年のガリポリの戦いでは、英仏軍は多大な犠牲者を出して退却した。
　最終的には連合軍が勝利したが、この戦いで同軍側に多くの犠牲者が出たことは、現代のトルコ、オーストラリア、ニュージーランドの国民意識の形成につながった。
　オーストラリア・ニュージーランド軍も連合軍に加わっており、上陸作戦が開始された４月２５日は両国では戦争記念の日になっている。
　建国１００周年を２０２３年に控えたトルコは、その史跡を世界中のダイバーに公開。一番乗りで見学した一人、ダイバーでドキュメンタリー制作者のサバシュ・カラカス氏は「１９１５年と第１次大戦に戻れるタイムマシンのようだ」と語る。
　水中カメラマンのエテム・ケスキン氏は、水深数メートルから８０メートルの所に沈んでいる戦艦を眺めるのは「私たちが過去を忘れないための良い機会になる」として、「こうした戦艦が沈没したときのことを思うと、戦争の威力を感じるだろう」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/10/27-12:52）

Hulking hulls of mighty warships greet divers off Turkey's western shore, testament to a World War I battle that gave birth to nations and is now an underwater museum.
The British Royal Navy's HMS Majestic is just one of 14 shipwrecks at Gallipoli, a peninsula that has been the graveyard of navies stretching back to ancient times.
The last great battle for its adjoining Dardanelles Strait leading from the Mediterranean toward Russia was a fiasco for British and French forces, who beat a retreat after months of fighting that claimed tens of thousands of lives.
And while the Allies eventually won the war, their sacrifices in the 1915 battle were a touchstone moment in the formation of national consciousness in modern Turkey, Australia and New Zealand.
Now Turkey, where history and politics seem inextricably interlinked, is opening the site up to the world's divers -- just in time for the country's centenary celebrations in 2023.
It's like a time machine that takes you back to 1915 and World War I, says Savas Karakas, a diver and documentary maker who was one of the first to inspect the wrecks when they opened to the public this month.
It's a good opportunity for us to remember our past, says professional underwater photographer Ethem Keskin of the wrecks, some lying just a few metres under the sea and others up to 80 metres.
I thought about the moment they sank and you feel the stress of war.
- 'Emotional moment' -
Turkey wants Gallipoli to be the new go-to destination for divers looking to connect with events that shaped the present world.
Other hotspots include the Chuuk Lagoon in Papua New Guinea -- famous for its World War II wrecks -- and the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, which still suffers the ills of US nuclear testing in the 1940s and 50s.
Now Gallipoli is becoming an alternative, Karakas said. This is history, and each shipwreck is like a medal on our chest.
Allied troops waded ashore on the peninsula at the start of an ill-fated land campaign to wrest the Dardanelles from the Ottoman Empire, which was already in its dying throes.
The battle began on April 25, 1915, pitting Allied troops from France, Britain, Australia and New Zealand against the Ottomans and Germany.
The Allies intended to secure a supply route to Russia and capture Constantinople, as Istanbul was known when it was the capital of the Ottoman and Byzantine empires.
They gave up after nearly nine months of gruelling warfare in which more than 100,000 were killed on all sides, according to different estimates.
April 25 is still honoured as Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand, whose joint Army Corps lost an estimated 11,000 lives in the campaign.
I dived into the remains with an Australian: a shipwreck which may not mean much to us aroused his interest, diving instructor Ercan Zeybek said.
It was an emotional moment for him.
- 'Holding grandfather's hand' -
Access to the wrecks required a special permit until 2017, when Ismail Kasdemir, who heads the area's Canakkale Historical Site, began pushing the idea of opening the seabed to the broader public.
There was history and treasure lying underwater for more than 100 years, he said. The diving community was curious.
Canakkale already attracts global tourists intrigued by remnants of the legendary city of Troy, which rests on the Dardanelles' eastern bank.
You can already smell the history above the water, Derya Can, who has set multiple free-diving records, told AFP at the underwater park's unveiling.
Now, divers will be able to survey the underwater history.
For film maker Karakas, this history is also personal since his name Savas (meaning war in Turkish) honours the Gallipoli campaign, where his grandfather was wounded.
His hand was burnt and I was very scared when I was a child. Each time he was trying to touch me... I was looking at his hand and feeling a little bit weird, he recalled.
When I dive, I remember this hand. The rusted steel feels like the hand burnt by shells from those ships, so it's like holding my grandfather's hand.