At the ANZAC Day dawn service in Ngunnawal Country/Canberra on April 25, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese repeated the core of the ANZAC myth; the 8709 Australian soldiers who were killed in the failed 1915 invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey died for supposed national ideals of freedom and sacrifice.

But it is a cynically constructed myth.

The thousands who died at Gallipoli were sent there to serve the imperial interests of the British empire, in a war that was essentially a squabble between European powers over colonies.

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Gallipoli was a bloodbath with nearly half a million casualties on all sides, with the greater proportion suffered on the defending Turkish side.

The experience of all the soldiers sacrificed in this imperial bloodbath was horrific and there is good reason to acknowledge this sacrifice.

However, through the ANZAC myth, this sacrifice has been exploited and weaponised by Labor and Coalition governments........

© Green Left Weekly