Top Level Attendance Low at Gallipoli Ceremony

ISTANBUL (Agos) — The list of participants has been announced for the Gallipoli ceremony, which have this year been made to overlap with April 24, the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. The ceremony in Turkey will be attended by a total of 79 officials including 21 heads of state and 5 prime ministers.

The commemoration ceremony will be held on 24-25 April and will feature attendance at the level of president, parliamentary speaker, deputy president, prime minister, minister and ambassador, and will be attended among others by Charles, Prince of Wales, representing the United Kingdom; Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan; Fuad Masum, President of Iraq; Tamim bin Hamad el Hani, Emir of the State of Qatar; and Khaled Khoja, the President of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.

The commemoration ceremony will also be attended by international organization representatives including Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP); Turkic Council Secretary General Ramil Hasanov; Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe; Iyad bin Amin Madani, Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC); Ambassador Smail Chergui, Commissioner for Peace and Security of the African Union; and also David Baragwanath, President of the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and Tawakel Karman, co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

1,100 journalists from 14 countries will attend the ceremony.