A rare Turkish propaganda leaflet dropped over Anzacs at Gallipoli will be auctioned in Melbourne by Mossgreen Auction House on April 30. It is part of the John Fisher Collection of Aviation History.
According to Mossgreen House Senior Specialist Gary Watson, “It really is the one of the fascinating highlights of the collection.”
Watson says the leaflet is very rare. "Firstly, troops would read them with probably a measure of disgust, crumple them up and throw them away or, secondly, use them for writing home - because paper was extremely scarce - or thirdly they may have used them as toilet paper,” he tells SBS Turkish.
The owner of the leaflet John Fisher, was killed in a plane crash in 2012. Fisher was an enthusiastic aviator who established an aviation museum in Melbourne. “John Fisher decided to found a museum at Maryborough," explains Watson. "He had everything there, from complete planes through to all the spares you can use for various types. "
"He had all sort of things about early aviation including maps, armaments, uniforms," says Watson. "Obviously, something about the leaflet caught his attention as an important artefact from the early days of the aviation. It’s unusual for a collection of this type, from the other side."
"Collections in Australia, Britain or US usually focus on the allied side. It’s nice to find a bit of a reference to Turkish troops in the collection,” Watson says. 
“It comes as a surprise for people to know that there were actually air activities at Gallipoli," says Watson. "Perhaps most surprising is that airmen on both sides dropped propaganda leaflets over the opposition trenches.
Amateur aviator John Fisher Source: Mossgreen
"The British ones are well known but the Turkish are extremely rare. I only know of one other example, which is in a private collection in Melbourne.”
The Turkish leaflet uses a “divide and conquer” message, attempting to convince the colonial troops that they are dying for the insatiable greed of the British.
It reads:
"AUSTRALIAN and NEW ZEALAND SOLDIERS! YOU HAVE BEEN TRICKED YOU CANNOT WIN
You can only die here far from home, or suffer from hunger and thirst.
The English, insatiable in their desire to dominate will waste your lives in their vain attempt at glory"
Turkish documents show an order dated 14 May 1915 by Enver Pasha to print 1000 leaflets, in English and French, to be dropped over Ari Burnu (the ANZAC sector) and Seddul Bahr at Gallipoli.
Watson says the information in the auction catalogue is all he knows about the leaflet. “If only a thousand were printed, its remarkable that even two have survived," he says.
"The information we have is that there were 3 or 4 different leaflets with simple text in different languages. There were also a lot of Indian troops at Gallipoli. So some of the leaflets were printed in Indian languages,” he said.
Mossgreen expects the leaflet to be sold for $1000 - $1500.
