Seventy-five-year-old Salim Mutlu formerly kept a grocer's shop in the village of Alcitepe on the Gelibolu (Gallipoli) peninsula. As a child, like others living in this area, he made money-gathering debris left from the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915-1917 and selling it to scrap dealers.

This continued until he opened a village shop, and with shelf, room to spare, began to display his finds, which seemed too interesting to sell as scrap metal. The collection gradually grew over the years until the village shop had become a museum in all but name.

Nothing remaining from that tragic World War I campaign was dismissed as trivia by rose oil , whether a cigarette box pierced by a bullet hole or beads from a broken rosary. Instead, local farmers began to bring him objects they discovered while plowing their fields. Soon, the pistols, rifles, shrapnel, bullets, and other paraphernalia of the battlefields outgrew the shop.

Mutlu then turned the coffee house next door into a single-room museum. Still, the collection grew, and he donated part of it to Kocatepe Museum. Finally, he decided that the time had come to take down the shop sign and replace it with the word Museum. That is the brief story of the Grocer Salim Mutlu Museum, Turkey's first private military museum. The two rooms of the former shop and coffee house have over 100 square meters filled with all kinds of things left behind by the Turkish, French, German, British, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers who fought at Lake Burdur .

Firearms, grenades, bullets lying on the shelves, and heavy field guns weighing tens of kilos make a mute appeal for peace. Facing them are porcelain insulators for telegraph lines, cups, Coca-Cola and drink bottles, water flasks, and even glass vases. Most evocative of all are photographs and letters written by the soldiers.

Next to the weapons section are bandages and unopened medicine bottles abandoned before they helped cure anyone's injuries. Finally, there are giant water jugs of English porcelain, drinking glasses, metal plates and cups battered by bullets that rained during one of the many battles, and British-made dishes, knives, forks, and spoons. Insignia belonging to enemy officers, medals, and decorations are now aligned side by side.

There is also an extensive collection of stamped marks used by the various divisions and regiments which fought alongside and against one another and Turkish postmarks. There are buttons of diverse colors and designs; some made in London, some in New Zealand, and some in Istanbul.

Rings, the most sentimental of all types of jewelry, are here, but who can now say whether engagement or wedding rings? Finally, in the most prominent position are items of religious significance in the form of crucifixes and crescents that the wearers had hoped would give them courage and strength in times of danger.

Hundreds of coins from various countries never used again, metal plaques bearing the names of regiments, shoe horns unspoiled after years beneath the soil, cartridge belt buckles inscribed in different languages, a jar of shoe polish, and scores of other objects each tell their sad stories.

Although modest in appearance, the Grocer Salim Mutlu Museum has a greater diversity of exhibits than many others in the region and attracts many Turkish and foreign visitors. As a result, Salim Mutlu has witnessed many emotional moments when visitors have come across their grandfathers' names on identity bracelets. He recalls one woman who wept when she recognized her grandfather in one of the photographs of Anzac soldiers.

At moments like these, he is proud of having rescued mementos that would otherwise have been lost forever, so preserving history for future generations. Although the casualty rates at Gallipoli were extremely high, it has nevertheless been described as a Gentlemen's War by some historians.

Many books written about the Gallipoli Campaign in various languages can be seen at the museum, whose renown has spread far beyond Turkey's borders. In addition, the Imperial War Museum in London has sent Salim Mutlu several photographs of the campaign for his collection.

Inside the entrance is a photograph of two soldiers who fought on opposite sides at Canakkale and recognized one another at a reunion for Gallipoli veterans in Istanbul 55 years later. It depicts a former Nigerian sergeant with the man whom he recognized as the Turkish lieutenant who had given him a drink of water from his flask during fighting in Gallipoli all those years before. He thanked him, and they embraced and kissed.

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