Kia Ora- I have seen a show about the relationship between
Australia,NZ,and Turkey.IT’s too bad there isn’t a present
day AtaTurk in the Middle East.
> IT’s too bad there isn’t a present day AtaTurk in the Middle East.
You are so right!
Kemal Mustafa Ataturk was a true Statesman, IMO on par with Sir Winston L S Churchill. I have a great deal of admiration for both men. They are uncommon.
Turkey won the Gallipoli engagement decisively, and dealt out a resounding defeat to the British and ANZAC forces that tried to invade her. Most victors would have been smug about that. But Ataturk’s words in 1934 sealed what has got to be one of the most improbable close friendships in world history, between Turkey, Australia and New Zealand:
“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.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers,
who sent their sons from far away countries,
wipe away your tears;
your sons are now lying in our bosom
and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have
become our sons as well.”
Like Churchill, Ataturk had a way with words: prose as beautiful as poetry, sincerely meant. And on the strength of those words it is highly unlikely our three countries will ever be at war again, save on the same side and against a common foe.