Upon the occassion of marking the 109th anniversary of the Battle of Çanakkale, Office for Education of the Ministry of National Education of Turkey, under the patronage of the Turkish Embassy in Sarajevo and with the support of the International University of Sarajevo (IUS) and the Yunus Emre Institute (YEE), a conference titled "Battle of Three Miracles: Çanakkale" was held on Thursday, February 29, 2024 at the IUS campus.
The guest speaker of the conference, Prof. Dr. Erhan Afyoncu, the Rector of the National Defense University in Istanbul, reiterated that he attended the laying of the foundations for educational facilities at IUS 20 years ago and that he is happy to be back in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Referring to the topic of the event, he highlighted the importance of Çanakkale in history and visually narrated to the program participants the events that took place during the war underlining the fact that this battle had a huge impact on many different nations.
Dr. Afyoncu reminded how many Bosniaks, Albanians, North Macedonians, and people from these regions fought in Çanakkale.
"The Battle of Gallipoli was not only a Turkish war, Muslims who were then within the empire, even outside its borders, also joined the war and together laid down their lives as martyrs," emphasized Afyoncu.
Afyoncu noted that some of those who came from different regions of the Ottoman Empire and survived the Battle of Gallipoli also remained and participated in the War of Independence.
