This is a beautiful beach.

Or better : it used to be one. It was called Anzac Cove. It was the place where Australia became a nation and Ataturk wrote beautiful things about mothers and their sons.

Apart from that, the entire Anzac area was considered to be one of the best - preserved World War I battlefields worldwide : for 90 years almost nothing had changed.

Two months ago however, alarming rumours started spreading that roadworks had started on the historical site and that ongoing excavations were threatening, if not destroying, the 1915 landing area. When the extent of the damage became clear, a media storm blew up in Australia, in New-Zealand and to a lesser degree in Turkey. Specialists were astonished at the degree of indifference, incompetence or worse that was displayed by the authorities responsible for the preservation of this 'sacred ground' where Anzacs as well as Turkish soldiers lost their lives.

The following pages contain a survey and a number of pictures of what has happened during the last two months.