Prime Minister Tony Abbott will mingle with Australian pilgrims on the Gallipoli peninsula on Friday afternoon ahead of the Anzac centenary dawn service.
Mr Abbott addressed business leaders and a peace conference in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Thursday ahead of travelling to Canakkale province on Friday morning, where he will board Australian warship HMAS Anzac before taking a tour of the Gallipoli battlefields and meeting descendants of veterans.
Recommended Reading
Australia and Turkey to crack down on foreign fighters
Speaking at the peace conference Mr Abbott, on his first visit to Turkey, said Australia and Turkey had formed a remarkable friendship, considering the ferocity of their conflict at Gallipoli just a century ago.
"I have not only been welcomed here as a friend but invited to address this Peace Summit, notwithstanding Australia's role in the 1915 attack on Turkey," he said.
"The Gallipoli campaign, or Canakkale Savasi as you call it here in Turkey, was a dreadful baptism of fire for the young Commonwealth of Australia.
"It would have been like that for Turkey too."
Mr Abbott met with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Wednesday to discuss terrorism issues including a possible agreement to return captured Australian jihadist fighters to Australia.
"Today, Turkey and Australia are working to defeat terrorism in all its forms," he said.
The final pieces of an enormous logistical and security puzzle are falling into place at Gallipoli, where 10,500 people will attend the Anzac Day dawn service.
Turkish authorities will conduct a full security sweep of the Australian Commemorative Site at North Beach ahead of the service, which starts on Friday evening with a reflective program.
Mr Abbott will speak at the reflective program.
Eight thousand Australians have tickets to attend the dawn service and they will be joined by 10 widows of First World War veterans who were invited to attend the ceremony by Mr Abbott and Veterans' Affairs Minister.
Marjorie Cameron, from Sydney, was married to Ernest Adkins, who served on the Western Front in Europe.
Ms Cameron said she was looking forward to the ceremony and was not concerned about the cold temperatures attendees would face.
"I think I will be alright," she said.
"I will be emotional."
Cartoonist and history enthusiast Warren Brown, who has had a longstanding association with the Gallipoli dawn service, will host the reflective program.
Mr Brown said the ceremony was the culmination of the lessons learned in previous years to ensure the massive event would run as smoothly as possible.
"As far as I know it's the biggest gathering of English-speaking people in a non-English-speaking country at one event in the world," he said.
