Introduction

In the sixth century BCE the Gallipoli peninsula was referred to as the Chersonese, and the waterway that separates the Asian and European continents was known as Hellespontos, or the Sea of Helle, after the Classical mythological figure of Helle, a consort of Poseidon. Due to its strategic location bordering the Dardanelles, the Gallipoli peninsula has been the site of many conflicts in its long past. From the 1970s through the 1990s a series of architectural competitions was held by different ministries of the Turkish government to create several commemorative projects for the Gallipoli National Historical Park. With the 2002 election in Turkey of the Justice and Development party, the dominant narrative about the Gallipoli peninsula, which had developed shortly after World War One and celebrated the role of the nation's founder, Ataturk, in the Ottoman victories on the peninsula, began to change.