Anzac Day 2026: 111 Years On, Dawn Services at Gallipoli

Australians, New Zealanders and Turks gathered at dawn on Saturday at the Anzac Commemorative Site in Gallipoli, Türkiye, to mark the 111th anniversary of the 1915 landings, in a year overshadowed by fresh wars across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The commemorations spanned services in Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and at military bases worldwide.

Dawn at Gallipoli

According to SBS News, 1News NZ, Sunday Guardian and the Australian Defence Department, the dawn service began at 5:30 a.m. local time at the Anzac Commemorative Site, on the beach where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed on April 25, 1915.

Officials and visitors from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey attended the ceremony, which included hymns, prayers and wreath-laying. The service closed with a reading of Atatürk's 1934 tribute, in which the founder of modern Turkey said "there is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets," delivered by Turkish military officials.

Australian Chief of Defence Force Admiral David Johnston attended the Gallipoli ceremony, per the Australian Defence Department.

Services Worldwide

Commemorations were also held at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, in Auckland, New Zealand, and at Australian and New Zealand embassies and military bases around the world. A service was also held at the U.S.-Philippine Balikatan 2026 exercise, per Sunday Guardian.

The Auckland dawn service was attended by hundreds of New Zealanders, according to Xinhua.

"Lest We Forget" in 2026

This year's commemoration carried unusual weight given the global context. Coverage emphasized that the ceremonies fell during the active 2026 Iran war and a major Russia-Ukraine bombardment that took place the same night.

The Gallipoli landings remain a defining moment in Australian and New Zealand national identity. For Türkiye, the site at Çanakkale represents a chapter when wartime adversaries became, in Atatürk's words, sons of the same soil.