Bigali Village

 

The back road that leads to the old Anafartalar region in Gallipoli passes through Big Anafarta Village as it approaches from the north. Bigalı, which is a small Turkish village is on this part.

At number 126 on a narrow and long street in Bigali, there is one of the most important houses of the neighborhood-Ataturk's house. On April 25th 1915, the 19th division commander of the Ottoman army, lieutenant colonel Mustafa Kemal resided in this house. On the morning of April 25th, the news about a British (Austrilian) landing to Ariburnu from the west reached this very house. Mustafa Kemal sensed the importance of this landing and by using his own initiative he commanded his division to move towards a steep are between Bigali and the shore.

Mustafa Kemal was unaware that he was drawn towards his destiny when he left his house in Bigali that morning. It was the years of which the Ottoman Empire was disintegrating yet Mustafa Kemal was 34 years old and pushed away by Turkey's bright political leaders: the Young Turks. The upcoming Gallipoli victory created Mustafa Kemal. He became the most well-known person among all the Turkish commanders after that victory. He came to the scene as the savior of the public when the foreign forces started to divide the lan of Ottoman Empire among themselves after that war and a couple of years after the First World War ended, he became the President of the Turkish Republic.

Mustafa Kemal did not know what was awaiting him in this future when he got the information that British landed in Ariburnu in this house in Bigali. Naturally this house is now a museum in the memory of Mustafa Kemal and his clothes in the house are still preserved (his robe, socks and shirts). The rooms are decorated as seemingly as it could have been when he was living there.

The person who carried Turkey to the modern world started his fight with the ANZACs from this very ordinary point on the map: Bigali Village.