Canakkale Battle is the Turkish name for the Gallipoli campaign in World War I, in which the Allied forces were eventually repelled from the Dardanelles by the Ottomans at a very dear price in human lives. During the battle, Kemal Mustafa Atatürk, then officer in the Ottoman army, became famous for his hard-line determination and his related quote "I do not command you to fight, I command you to die. In the time it will take us to die we can be replenished by new forces".

Near Famagusta, Ottoman soldiers from the Canakkale and other war theatres were held prisoners at a British camp, which eventually was dissolved in 1920. In remberance of those who died there during captivity, the memorial was erected on the premises of Famagusta's Turkish cemetery in 1980.