KEY POINTS:
Australian and New Zealand reverence for the ground over which the Gallipoli campaign was fought in 1915 may cause irreparable damage to the site, an Australian academic has warned.
Calling for a cap on the number of people allowed to attend Anzac Day services at the site, Australian
National University historian Professor Joan Beaumont said further harm was inevitable because of the numbers of visitors attending memorial services there.
Further conflicts could arise from the fact that Australians and New Zealanders regarded Gallipoli almost as their own, but the area was the sovereign territory of Turkey, which also had a strong emotional heritage from the repelling of foreign invaders.
Beaumont's call, made at an ANU symposium on Gallipoli involving Australian and Turkish experts, has been rejected by Veteran Affairs Minister Alan Griffin, who said there were no plans for a cap on tourist numbers.
"While the question of permitted visitors is a matter for the Turkish Government, I can assure Australians that there are no plans to cap the number of visitors.
"The Turkish Government has been very welcoming to all Australians wishing to commemorate Anzac Day and there is no evidence to indicate that this will change."
Attendance at Gallipoli Anzac Day services peaked at 16,000 in 2005 but fell to 8000 last year - about the same number expected to attend this year's services. Up to 70,000 people also visit the site every March 18 for Turkish commemorations of the campaign, marking the sinking of three Allied battleships that led to the invasion of the peninsula by Australian, New Zealand, British and French infantry.
Security will be tightened at this month's Anzac Day services, with all alcohol and "other inappropriate items" confiscated.
But Beaumont has warned that problems will continue to mount.
Three years ago Gallipoli was embroiled in a bitter war of words over the widening of 6.3km of roadworks along Brighton Beach, Anzac Cove and North Beach by Turkish contractors.
The work was carried out at the request of the Australian Government to improve access to the area.
But a Senate inquiry found that because of inadequate supervision significant sites of the Anzac campaign had been lost forever.
The inquiry's report said human remains had been disturbed by the work, that spoil from the work was deliberately dumped on the beach, no measures had been made to prevent erosion, and no effort had been made to "preserve the footsteps of the original Anzacs".
Beaumont said the tension between heritage and tourism at Gallipoli exposed by the roadworks remained unresolved. "Despite this site falling under Turkish sovereignty, it is clear that a kind of cultural annexation has taken place, with many Australians and New Zealanders believing that ownership has been conferred by the deaths of their compatriots during World War I," she said.
The conflict between Turkish sovereignty and Anzac heritage had come to the fore during the 2005 row over road widening, during which Canberra had tried to shift blame to Turkey despite having asked for access to be improved.
"Amid the outcry, few people questioned whether the development should proceed simply in order to accommodate the growing number of battlefield tourists," Beaumont said.
"This incident highlights the difficulty of protecting the integrity and authenticity of international sites that are significant to Australians' memory of war, from the pressures of resurgent nationalism and tourism."
