Why did the Allied forces invade Gallipoli, but not through the southern part of the Ottoman Empire?
This is a very good question if the southern part of the Empire is considered as southern Anatolia. (As mentioned in other answers of course the Mesopotamian campaign took place but the objective if that operation was to secure the oil fields.)
During the decision making process of the Dardanelles Campaign the alternative was an amphibious attack to Iskenderun İskenderun - Wikipedia and invasion of Anatolia through Cilicia. Cilicia - Wikipedia
Winston Churchill considered the attack seriously but had to give up the idea because of French concerns. The French had ambitions regarding the area and would not accept a British or invasion easily. The advantage of a Cilician Operation would be to divide Anatolia in two and force a surrender.
However, both operations’ objective was to start an uprising or a coup d’etat and take Turkey out of the war. After all it was obvious that either by bringing a war weary fleet into the Marmara sea which is by all means a huge pond or trying to invade a vast country by an amphibious assault would be meaningless unless some kind of an inside intervention was expected. This was a major assesment mistake and we all know what happened.
Anyhow, if they had attacked from the south we would probably be talking about the Osmaniye or Iskenderun Defence and the outcome would not be any different.
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