The water channel was officially renamed in 1985 after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) in exchange for naming the landing beach of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops during the Gallipoli campaign of World War I in 1915, as ANZAC Cove in Turkey.

[1][2] Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and the first president of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, fought at the Gallipoli campaign against ANZAC.

[3] Ataturk Channel is wide and deep enough to allow navigation of large ships into the Princess Royal Harbour.

[1] A life-sized standing statue of Atatürk overlooking to the channel named after him was erected in 2002.

[4] The memorial is accessible walking along Stirling Terrace or from the Middleton Beach.