Mocking Çanakkale ( Gallipoli ) Türkiye and Australia. By Portraying a Soccer Match as “Revenge for Gallipoli”
Mocking Çanakkale ( Gallipoli ) for Sports Humor Dishonors the Fallen and Distorts History.
Not on my watch will I stay mute.
The article by Clancy Overell is not clever satire it is a deeply offensive attempt to trivialize one of the most tragic chapters in the shared history of Türkiye and Australia. By portraying a soccer match as “revenge for Gallipoli,” the author reduces the sacrifice of thousands of young men on both sides to a cheap sporting joke and undermines a friendship that was forged through unimaginable loss and later transformed into one of mutual respect and brotherhood.
Gallipoli was never about revenge. It became a symbol of reconciliation. The battlefield of Çanakkale produced not hatred, but a lasting bond between Australians, New Zealanders, and Turks. The men who fought there earned each other’s respect through courage and sacrifice.
In 1915, while defending his homeland, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk told his soldiers: “I am not ordering you to attack, I am ordering you to die.” He later became the founder of the modern Republic of Türkiye and emerged as a statesman dedicated to peace and reconciliation.
His immortal words to the mothers of the fallen ANZACs remain one of the greatest tributes to peace ever spoken:
“There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours… After having lost their lives on this land, they become our sons as well.”
These words transformed former enemies into friends and created a relationship that has endured for more than a century. Türkiye, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and many other nations continue to honor that shared history together.
To invoke Gallipoli as a vehicle for mocking Turks or celebrating “revenge” is irresponsible and disrespectful. It does nothing to strengthen understanding between peoples. More troubling, it contributes to a broader pattern of rhetoric that seeks to caricature and delegitimize the Turkish nation and its people.
No article, no headline, and no misguided attempt at humor will damage the brotherhood forged at Çanakkale. The friendship between Türkiye and Australia is built on mutual respect, remembrance, and peace and it is far stronger than the divisive words of any commentator.
Ibrahim Kurtulus
Community Activist
New York – Staten Island.
cc: Permanent Mission of Australia to the United Nations, New York
All The Australian Consulate-General’s in United States
In an escalation of its invasion of southern Lebanon, Israel heavily bombarded the historic Beaufort Castle.
This monument was built around the year 1139 by the Crusaders and is nearly a thousand years old. It is one of the finest examples of medieval military architecture in the Near East and is under special UNESCO protection (The National, 2026; UNESCO,2025).
Air and artillery strikes caused direct hits and columns of smoke visible over the heritage site. These bombardments worsened previous damage to the medieval monument (Associated Press, 2026).
The castle was directly struck before Israeli troops occupied it on May 31,2026, and raised flags over the ruins.
So far, the Israeli offensive has caused more than three thousand deaths in Lebanon. Israel has systematically killed doctors, paramedics, and journalists, repeating the pattern seen in Gaza. It has also destroyed entire villages through massive bombardments (The Guardian, 2026).
Beaufort is not only ancient stone, but an emblem of Lebanese identity facing systematic destruction. The invasion violates UNESCO-protected sites.
This destruction of archaeological heritage in southern Lebanon and in Gaza — a millennia-old city — recalls the actions of ISIS, which deliberately razed historic sites to erase collective memory (Washington Post, 2026).
References
The National. (2026, May . Lebanon’s Crusader-era Beaufort Castle is consumed by conflict again.
UNESCO. (2025). The castles of Mount Amel: Qalaat Al Chakif (Beaufort Castle).
Associated Press. (2026, May 31). Israeli army captures strategic castle in Lebanon in deepest incursion into the country in 26 years.
The Guardian. (2026, May 23). Israeli bombardment reduces buildings to craters in southern Lebanon.
Washington Post. (2026, May 30). Israeli strikes reportedly pound near Crusader-built castle in Lebanon.
The president of the Oxford Union, Arwa Elrayess, has decided to go ahead with the online event featuring Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker on June 6, 2026.
Despite the entry ban imposed by the British government.
The Home Office revoked their electronic travel authorizations (ETA), claiming their presence was “not conducive to the public good.”
This decision is widely seen as an act of servility to pro-Israel pressure (Middle East Eye, 2026; The Guardian, 2026).
Uygur, from The Young Turks, and his nephew Piker (HasanAbi) are known for their progressive activism and their rejection of racism in all its forms.
There are no credible records of them inciting hatred against Jews.
On the contrary, both have consistently condemned antisemitism.
Their real “crime” has been harshly criticizing the policies of the State of Israel since October 2023.
Organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented what they describe as genocide in Gaza: massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, blocking of humanitarian aid, and tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed (Amnesty International, 2026; Human Rights Watch, 2026).
New York Times critic Jennifer Szalai has pointed out in similar analyses how these bans reflect an authoritarian closure of public debate, where legitimate criticism of a government is falsely equated with racial hatred (Szalai, 2026).
This cowardly measure by the United Kingdom exposes its subordination to foreign interests above the liberal principles it claims to defend.
The Oxford Union resists: ideas are fought with arguments, not with vetoes.
In times of moral crisis, censoring those who denounce atrocities only reveals weakness and fear of the truth.
References
Amnesty International. (2026, March 10). Israel’s genocide in Gaza inflicts compounded harms on women and girls.
Human Rights Watch. (2026). World Report 2026: Israel and Palestine.
Middle East Eye. (2026, June 2). Oxford Union president vows to platform Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur in defiance of UK ban.
The Guardian. (2026, June 1). Free speech activists condemn UK entry ban for Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur.
Szalai, J. (2026, April 22). An Israeli-born scholar of the Holocaust mourns for his country. The New York Times.
Former ICC Prosecutor Accuses Mossad of Intimidating Her at Her Home to Protect Israel
Former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, has denounced an intense campaign of pressure and intimidation by Israel aimed at forcing her to close the investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine (Middle East Eye, 2026).
Bensouda, who led the Office of the Prosecutor between 2012 and 2021, opened a preliminary examination in 2015 into violations committed in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, primarily attributed to Israeli forces and also to Palestinian armed groups (Al Jazeera, 2026).
Shortly after launching that inquiry, two men appeared directly at her home in The Hague and handed her an envelope containing $500, supposedly as a “thank you” gesture. Bensouda interpreted the act as a clear threat: “They came directly to my house. I understood the message they were sending,” she recalled (Middle East Eye, 2026).
She immediately reported the incident to the Dutch police and ICC security. The investigation revealed that the men’s phone numbers were linked to Israel and that the vehicle in which they arrived had been rented at the airport, confirming the connections to Israel (Middle East Eye, 2026).
Subsequently, then-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen met with her in Munich and New York to explicitly ask her to abandon the investigation. “What was clear is that he did not want the Palestine investigation to continue,” Bensouda stated (TRT World, 2026).
The former Gambian prosecutor felt abandoned by the ICC’s member states. “I felt alone. I felt unsupported,” she lamented despite having reported the threats (Al Jazeera, 2026).
These revelations have reignited the debate over political interference in international justice. Israel categorically denies the allegations.
References
Al Jazeera. (2026). Talk to Al Jazeera: Fatou Bensouda on Israeli threats against her and the ICC.
Middle East Eye. (2026). Former ICC prosecutor says Mossad chief pressured her to stop investigating Israel war crimes.
TRT World. (2026). Former ICC chief says Mossad pressured her to stop investigating Israel.
Retired Rear Admiral Dr. Cihat Yaycı: Greece Stole the Blue Homeland Too
As Retired Rear Admiral Dr. Cihat Yaycı pointed out, Greece’s never-ending cultural theft has reached a new dimension.
For years, those who have tried to appropriate the authentic Turkish cuisine and culture by calling cacık “caciki,” baklava “baklavas/baklavaki,” zeybek “zeybekiko,” and Turkish coffee “Greek coffee,” have now set their sights on the symbol of our rights in our seas.
With a new perception operation launched on Greek social media, they are attempting to steal this national term by saying “The Blue Homeland is Greek” and “The Real Blue Homeland.”
Moreover, this shamelessness goes so far as to claim that even Behçet’s disease, discovered by the first Turkish doctor Hulusi Behçet, was discovered by a Greek doctor.
Dr. Yaycı noted that it is no coincidence that the word “Greek” in English slang means “thief.”
Cihat Yaycı emphasizes that we must be vigilant against this mentality that attempts to create its own history without any historical evidence.
He also has a very clear warning for our citizens who consume our own values in Greece, mistaking them for “Greek food”: We must protect all our cultural and national values, from Maraş ice cream to Gaziantep baklava, from Turkish coffee to the Blue Homeland!
Cihat Yaycı concludes his speech with an English message: “There is no limit to the theft of the Greeks.
Washington does not lose wars, Washington achieves strategic objectives.
Washington successfully degrades enemy capabilities.
Washington transitions to a ceasefire framework, but Congress has receipts.
Just revealed something that no Pentagon press briefing would ever say out loud.
42 American military aircraft shot out of the sky.
By a country that Washington had already declared defeated.
Welcome to the story behind the story.
Before we count what America lost, let us count what America said it would achieve.
The Trump administration entered Operation Epic Fury with four publicly stated objectives.
Destroy Iran’s nuclear program completely.
Degraied Iran’s ballistic missile capability.
Cut-off Iran’s support for regional proxy groups.
Force Iran’s leadership to permanently renounce nuclear weapons.
Four objectives.
29 billion dollars.
Keep those four in your mind.
We will return to them.
On February 28th, 2026, the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury.
Washington was triumphant.
Supreme Leader Kamine was dead.
Nuclear sites were hit.
The state of Hormuz Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth told Congress,”
We have achieved our strategic objectives.
Now fast-forward to May the Congressional Research Service.”
The non-partisan research arm of the United States Congress.
Quietly published a report.
No press conference.
No headlines on American prime time.
No ticker on CNN. A very uncomfortable document.
42 United States military aircraft lost or severely damaged.
In a war that America won.
Let us now do what Washington refused to do.
Aircraft by aircraft.
The F-35A, lightning the second.
The most expensive weapons program in human history.
At 1.7 trillion dollars.
Shot down or severely damaged over Iran on March 19th.
Cost of one aircraft between 80 and 110 million dollars.
Iran’s foreign minister, Iraq chi, Iran’s armed forces were the first in the world to shoot down an F-35.
Washington has not denied it.
Four F-15E strike-eagles, $100 million each, $400 million total.
Three destroyed by friendly fire over Kuwait.
America paid to shoot down its own jets.
The fourth destroyed in combat over Iran.
One eight-end thunderbolt the second, $20 million.
Destroyed inside Iran.
Seven KC–135 strattotankers.
The aircraft that keep combat jets flying.
$30 million each, $350 million total.
Five of them were not airborne.
They were parked on the tarmac at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia when Iranian missiles found them.
One E3-century A-wax, $270 million.
The flying command center.
The brain of the entire operation.
Destroyed on the ground in Saudi Arabia by an Iranian missile.
Two MC–130J commandow the second special operations aircraft.
$100 million each, $200 million total.
American commandows flew them into Iran on a rescue mission.
They got stuck in soft sand inside Iranian territory.
American forces blew up their own aircraft on Iranian soil because they could not fly them out.
One H-H-60W Jolly Green the second helicopter.
$40 million, damaged by small arms fire during the same rescue mission.
24 M-Q-9 Reaper drones between $30 and $56 million each, $720 million total.
And the M-Q-9 production line was already shut down in 2025.
America cannot replace them quickly.
Iran destroyed 24 of a product no longer being manufactured.
One M-Q-4C Triton surveillance drone.
$250 million, a quarter billion dollar aircraft.
Total hardware destroyed in 40 days.
Approximately $3.5 to $4 billion.
And that is just the aircraft.
The Pentagon told Congress the full cost of Operation Epic Fury is now $29 billion.
That number jumped 4 billion in just two weeks.
83 cents of every dollar spent.
$24 billion out of $29 billion.
Went toward fixing and replacing destroyed military hardware.
And the $29 billion does not include a single dollar of base repair costs.
Those assessments are still ongoing.
Congressional sources say the final bill could reach 200 billion oracles.
$200 billion for a 40-day war that America won.
And Iran was not just hitting aircraft.
Iran hit American military bases across seven countries simultaneously.
In the first two weeks alone, confirmed base damage reached $800 million.
The U. S. Navy Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain was hit.
Repair cost for that one building $200 million.
In Qatar, Iran struck an early warning radar system valued at $1.1 billion.
$1 billion.
In Kuwait, a 50-year-old Iranian F5 jet penetrated the patriot air defense shield and bombed a U. S. compound, a half-century old aircraft.
Inside a base protected by the most advanced missile defense system in the world.
And none of this base damage is included in the $29 billion figure.
It’s still counting.
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly sat before Congress and used one word to describe America’s weapons inventory after this war.
His exact words, “I think it is fair to say it is shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines.
The American people are less safe, whether it is a conflict with China or somewhere else in the world.
We are talking about years to rebuild.
America spent $29 billion and weakened itself against every future enemy at the same time.
Now the scoreboard.
Destroy Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran still holds over 450 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium.
Enough for 9 to 11 nuclear weapons.
Fordale survived.
Buried under 80 meters of granite.
Iran’s Parliament voted to end all IAA cooperation after the ceasefire.
Iran is now less transparent than before the war.
Netanyahu himself admitted on CBS. There is still nuclear material.
There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled.
The man who launched the war admitted the war did not finish the job.
Iran’s ballistic missiles.
Iranian missiles were still hitting American warships in the straight of Hormuz in May 2026.
A full month into the ceasefire.
Cut off Iran’s proxy support.
Hezbollah operational.
Health is active.
My RGC network intact, force Iran to announce nuclear weapons.
No deal, no signed agreement, no verification framework.
Trump called Iran’s latest proposal a piece of garbage.
The nuclear talks are still ongoing.
The same talks that diplomacy could have produced before a single bomb was dropped.
Zero out of four objectives achieved.
Here is what the data tells us.
The United States launched Operation Epic Fury with the most advanced air force in the world.
It flew nearly 13,000 soughties.
It hit over 5,500 targets.
It killed the Supreme Leader of Iran.
And it lost 42 aircraft worth $4 billion.
It spent $29 billion.
Got its bases hit in seven countries.
Pleated its missiles for years, achieved zero out of four stated objectives, agreed to a ceasefire with a country it claimed to have defeated.
And then spent two months hiding the losses from its own Congress, American style.
The story behind the story is not about what Iran lost.
The story behind the story is about what Washington could not afford to lose next.
Because if the war had restarted with Iran’s flight patent data with its proven F-35 kill, with its confirmed drone hunting capability, with American munitions already at shocking levels, the next set of losses would not be 42 aircraft.
And someone in Washington did the math.
That is the story behind the story.
I am your host.
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. Lebanon’s Crusader-era Beaufort Castle is consumed by conflict again.
