Venkat Raman
Auckland, April 25, 2024
New Zealand pays homage to the slain soldiers during the First World War starting with the landings of its forces in Gallipoli on April 25, 1915 and our soldiers are a part of National Consciousness, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said.
“What we can do is remember their sacrifice while reflecting on their appalling loss. Gallipoli strongly lives in New Zealand’s national consciousness because we lost so many young men. About 10% of our adult males served during the Great War. Their average age was 25 and we lost a fifth of them, many here. Our young country lost so much potential and possible futures on this ground and so many other fields across Europe,” he said.
Dawn Memorial Service in Türkiye
Mr Peters was speaking at the Dawn Memorial Service (corresponding to 5.30 am in Türkiye and 2.30 pm in New Zealand) to mark the ANZAC Day on-site at Gallipoli in Türkiye (Turkey) today (April 25).
“We meet at dawn to commemorate the terrible loss of so many lives, yet we cannot hallow these grounds. The men who died here have already made sacred the ground upon which we come every twenty-fifth of April. Fraternal bonds were forged and nations who were once enemies, are now friends,” he said.
Mr Peters quoted Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first President of the Republic of Turkey as saying, “Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace.”
“From the distant Pacific Ocean, we arrive with humility upon your land. Our footprints and your footprints are joined forever. The fallen warriors of our people and your people rest together within your ancestral soil. Rest in peace,” Mr Peters said.
https://youtu.be/QctrurOQ9VM
ANZAC Day from New Zealand History
Each year on Anzac Day, New Zealanders and Australians mark the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings of 25 April 1915. On that day, thousands of young men, far from their homes, landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula, in what is now Türkiye.
British and French forces made the main landing at Cape Helles on the tip of the Peninsula, while General William Birdwood’s Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (commonly known as Anzacs) landed 20 km North. New Zealand troops, who were part of the New Zealand and Australian Division under Major-General Alexander Godley, followed the Australians ashore on the first morning of the assault.
In the face of vigorous Ottoman Turkish defence, no significant Allied advance proved possible. The fighting quickly degenerated into trench warfare, with the Anzacs holding a tenuous perimeter. The troops endured heat, flies, the stench of rotting corpses, lack of water, dysentery and other illnesses, and a sense of hopelessness.
An attempt to break the stalemate in August failed, though not without a stirring New Zealand effort that briefly captured part of the high ground at Chunuk Bair. In this assault, men of the Maori Contingent, who had recently arrived from garrison duty in Malta, took part in the first attack by a Māori unit outside New Zealand. With the failure of the August offensive, the stalemate resumed.
Ultimately, the Allies cut their losses, evacuating all troops from Gallipoli by early January 1916. More than 130,000 men had died during the campaign: at least 87,000 Ottoman soldiers and 44,000 Allied soldiers, including more than 8700 Australians. Among the dead were 2779 New Zealanders, nearly a sixth of those who had landed on the peninsula.
In the wider story of the First World War, the Gallipoli campaign made no large mark. The number of dead, although horrific, pales in comparison with the death toll in France and Belgium during the war. Yet the campaign remains significant in New Zealand, Australia and Türkiye, being viewed as a formative moment in each country’s national history.
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Memories do not die
Among those who travelled to Gallipoli this year was Doug Hill, the great-grandson of Mrs Eliza O’Donnell, whose two sons fought there. While one son, Jack died in Gallipoli, the other, Bill survived but died at the Battle of Messines. Another son, Edward, lost his leg at Passchendaele. A son-in-law was killed in France.
“Anzac Day for Doug, as with all of us gathered here this morning, reveals how our memories link the past with the present, and bind our efforts to learn from history so as never to repeat its worst expression, war. But standing here at Gallipoli, our words matter less than their deeds. We will never forget what they did here,” Mr Peters said.
A troubled and divided world
He said that people have emerged from a global pandemic a more divided world.
“Regional instabilities and the chaos they create threaten the security of too many. So we must all do more. Demand more. And deliver more. It took Winston Churchill nearly forty years after the fighting waged across this Peninsula, and the Second World War, to learn from Gallipoli’s experience to declare, ‘to jaw-jaw is better than war-war.’ It was true then. It is true now. Never has diplomacy been more needed to de-escalate conflicts and ease tensions. That is our lesson and resolve when leaving Gallipoli today,” Mr Peters said.
He said that people attending the Gallipoli Dawn Services will create their own memories and draw their own conclusions from their presence.
“But we must all come together, as people and as nations, to do more to honour those who paid with their lives. We must protect and care for our young. We must reject and resist those who seek to conquer and control. We must always seek the path of peace. Then, and only then, will the men buried here not have died in vain,” he said.
Mr Peters said we live in a troubled world, the worst in memory.
“Dawn begins each day. Sunrise speaks to the promise of a better day. From a long-ago battlefield to this morning’s promise, we must leave this ground dedicated to making our worlds better. Then the men buried here will not have died in vain,” he said.
