Today, at the Canadian War Museum, the High Commissions of Australia and New Zealand and the Turkish Embassy gathered to remember those who have fallen in service to their three countries. Although ANZAC Day (Australian, New Zealand Army Corps) originally was meant to remember the Gallipoli Campaign, it has grown in scope to encompass those who have fallen in any conflict. To be clear, this is the 100th ANZAC Day to remember the battle that took place 101 years ago. Other countries were involved in Gallipoli including the United Kingdom, France, India and Newfoundland in the conflict against the Ottoman Empire (now represented by Turkey). In a spirit unknown in other conflicts, the belligerents, over time, have come to remember together the dead of both sides in a common ceremony and the words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s Tribute to the ANZACs bring comfort to those whose family remained buried in a foreign country,
“You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. … 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.”
The link to Canada for this remembrance is through the Newfoundland Regiment which arrived on the Gallipoli Peninsula on Sep, 1915, and fought a rearguard action allowing the other allied troops to extricate themselves from this lost cause. The Newfoundland Regiment itself was amongst the last to leave the battlefield on the 9th Jan, 2016.
To see all the pictures, CLICK HERE
