Tag: Anzac

  • Turkey rejects more for Gallipoli 100th

    Turkey rejects more for Gallipoli 100th

    • From: The Australian
    • October 23, 2013 12:00AM

    ANZCoveBig

    TURKEY has rejected an Australian request to increase the number of Australians and New Zealanders visiting Gallipoli for the 100th anniversary of the Anzac landings.

    The Turks insist that for safety reasons no more than 10,500 Australians and New Zealanders may attend the commemoration on April 25, 2015. And the Abbott government will press on with the plan for a national ballot to allocate those places to those who want to attend.

    When the ballot plan was announced by the Labor government last year, battlefield tour operators and some of those who had booked places reacted angrily to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ plan to limit the number able to attend the dawn service. The Coalition undertook to review the planning for the centenary if it won government.

    The Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, Michael Ronaldson, said he had discussed the numbers with the Turkish government. “It’s been made very clear to me . . . that they view 10,500 as the maximum figure. They are our hosts. They are very generous hosts and if that’s the figure they believe is appropriate then that’s the figure we will work on.”

    He said he would make announcements about the ballot process in the next month. The previous government’s estimates of the numbers of people eligible for the various categories in the ballot were reasonable.

    But large numbers of Australians wanted to make the journey and there had to be a way to ensure that those who entered the ballot actually intended to go, Senator Ronaldson said.

    “It’s important that people have thought long and hard about whether they want to go, whether they can go and whether they will go,” he said.

    To take some of the pressure off the anniversary of the Anzac landing, Senator Ronaldson is considering a proposal for commemoration ceremonies marking other key dates.

    “I’m looking at how we might be able to have some smaller, but no less important for the families involved, commemorative activities through the campaign.”

    In April, former defence force chief Angus Houston told The Australian that being at Gallipoli in August for the anniversaries of the battles such as Lone Pine and The Nek or the evacuation would give visitors the space to contemplate the Anzac sacrifice without battling the crowds expected to mark the 100th anniversary of the landing.

    Mr Houston, who headed the inquiry into how the Gallipoli centenary should be commemorated, said it could be dangerous to allow unlimited numbers to visit. “I think if you just have a free-for-all, it will be a shambles. The simple fact is that the site will not take more than 10,500 people,” he said.

    He said it might be possible to have a small team including a chaplain and a bugler at Gallipoli to carry out services daily during the anniversary period.

    Senator Ronaldson said a key priority for him as minister would be caring for those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and other conflicts.

    He said he wanted the next generation of Australians to come out of the Anzac commemorative period with a clear understanding of a century of sacrifice, from World War I to Afghanistan, knowing where their forebears fought, when they fought and the values they were fighting to defend, as well as what 102,000 names on the Australian War Memorial meant.

    via Turkey rejects more for Gallipoli 100th | The Australian.

    • From: The Australian
    • October 23, 2013 12:00AM

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  • Why the Anzac test is a turkey

    Why the Anzac test is a turkey

    OPINION: WITH ALL due respect to the NZRL, there’s something deeply disturbing about the proposal to stage a so-called Anzac league test in Turkey in 2015.

    Photos: Photosport  Let's call the Last Post on this farce: The Kiwis line up to face the Kangaroos last weekend.
    Photos: Photosport Let's call the Last Post on this farce: The Kiwis line up to face the Kangaroos last weekend.
    Photos: Photosport

    Let’s call the Last Post on this farce: The Kiwis line up to face the Kangaroos last weekend.

    Fair enough; playing a footy match to commemorate the landing at Gallipoli (where 11,421 Aussies and Kiwis perished) may have seemed a bright idea when first mooted at executive level. But you’d think cooler, or at least more sensitive minds might have eventually prevailed. It simply feels wrong on so many levels.

    It’s true, league is not on its own, here. Sport has always had this thing about comparing itself with war. Clearly not content with the standard theatre and drama it offers in the name of entertainment, it continually seeks non-existent parallels with the battlefield. League is merely the most recent example of this. The NZRL’s marketing slogan: “More than just a Game” is a delightful self-portrait; managing to sound both defensive and delusional in five easy words.

    For all that, the idea of league trying to boost its reputation and relevance (not to mention its coffers) by hanging on to war’s coat-tails is about as embarrassing as it gets. No wonder sport is so often lampooned for losing perspective. It’s bad enough that a commercial sporting event should even be using the “Anzac” tag for publicity, but this Turkey plan borders on the obscene. Good grief, why don’t we just party on the graves?

    From what I’ve read, most of the soldiers who survived either of the world wars preferred to keep their sport firmly in context. Former New Zealand cricketers Frank Cameron and Artie Dick spoke recently of the culture clash within the post WWII teams: the players who had served in the conflict and those who hadn’t. The first group tended to compete hard, accept a win or a loss magnanimously and play hard afterwards. The second were, typically, more obsessive and intense.

    In Greg Growden’s fabulous biography of Australian Bodyline batsman Jack Fingleton, it was again evident that the war veterans refused to treat sport as seriously as many of the peacetime players. The dashing all-rounder Keith Miller was regularly at odds with Don Bradman on the 1948 tour of England, at times refusing to bat or bowl in protest against his captain’s ruthless tactics. Unlike Miller, Bradman hadn’t seen any WWII action.

    The point of all this? Only that those poor blighters unfortunate enough to be caught up in either of the Great Wars knew where sport stood in the scheme of things. It was a game, just a game and certainly no more than a game. It was something to be played for fun. Those people knew what real drama was; they’d seen it with their own eyes. The horror, the death, the putrid smell of decay; they’d witnessed first-hand what genuine loss meant. And it had nothing to do with sport.

    League is trying far too hard. Presumably, many grocers fell at Gallipoli as well as footy players, along with butchers, bakers and candlestick-makers. Builders, plumbers, sparkies and farmers; salesmen and drivers, alike. Yet, as far we’ve heard, there are no plans for any of these industries to hold their 2015 annual conferences in Turkey. Only sport, represented in this instance by the NZRL, could be fat-headed enough to think along those lines.

    Quite apart from that, there’s also the irony of the Turkey proposal. After all, the Aussie league fraternity didn’t even really support WWI; they avoided it like the plague. Check out any credible historical account and it will tell a similar story. Australian historian Michael McKernan estimated about 75% of unmarried Aussie league players somehow managed to avoid serving. The NSWRL Roll of Honour, for first-grade players or officials killed in WWI, numbers 10, including the secretary.

    The purpose of this is not to belittle, of course; just to highlight the hypocrisy of the latest brainwave. Many were the reasons for Aussie’s new working-class sport not supporting the war. But the glaring reality is that, collectively, it did not. In 1915, as a comparison, it was reported that 197 out of 220 of Sydney’s regular first-grade rugby union players were in active service. London’s Daily Telegraph estimated 5000 Aussie union players served; about 98% of all adult playing numbers.

    As another Australian historian, Sean Fagan of website RL1908.com, notes, the NSWRL’s decision to continue playing its competition throughout the war, unlike union, was also controversial. Many considered it a reason for the 13-man code subsequently gaining an ascendancy over its rival. At the height of the debate the NSW Labor Premier went as far as calling on all able-bodied sports-men to do more to help their mates. “Your comrades at Gallipoli are calling you,” he exhorted. “This is not the time for football and tennis matches. It is serious. Show you realise this by enlisting at once.” Yet, even then, Aussie league’s finest avoided serving in their droves. There was no full draft and clearly, many had their reasons for not volunteering, not least a simmering hatred for the English. Nothing wrong with that, of course. But whichever way you look at it, Gallipoli and Aussie league have never had much in common.

    All the more extraordinary, then, that the powers-that-be should be attempting to make a connection between today’s annual trans-Tasman league fixture and the historic WWI battleground. It doesn’t as much seem wrong as downright distasteful, the idea of trading off the heroism, bravery and spirit of our Gallipoli veterans; in a tacky attempt to associate their privations and sacrifice with a tin-pot game of footy.

    More than just a game? Hopefully the NZRL will soon come to its senses.

    rboock@xtra.co.nz

    – Sunday Star Times

    via Why the Anzac test is a turkey | Stuff.co.nz.

  • Canon supports school trip to Gallipoli

    Canon supports school trip to Gallipoli

    A group of Rangitoto College students are about to embark on the trip of a lifetime to Turkey, thanks to the support of Canon New Zealand.

    anzac5The trip will see 10 students travel to Turkey where they will live with exchange families for two weeks and attend a special commemoration ceremony for those who fell at Gallipoli at Canakkale Savaslari on March 18th.

    Canon New Zealand has provided financial support for the students and their accompanying teachers, as well as equipment for a fundraising event and sweatshirts for the students.

    Mike Johnston, Canon New Zealand Country Manager, says Canon has had a long association with Rangitoto College and is delighted to be able to provide assistance.

    “This will be a life changing adventure for the students. The opportunity to learn about the past and forge relationships for the future is not one to be missed and we are proud that we can help Rangitoto College achieve this,” says Johnston.

    David Hodge, Principal of Rangitoto College, is excited about the trip also, explaining, “This trip is a great opportunity for these students to not only learn about a new culture, but to live it. We are grateful to Canon for helping us send these students, as ambassadors of New Zealand, to experience Turkey.”

    The student exchange is organised by Istanbul Lisesi, one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in Turkey, to build positive relationships between Turkey, New Zealand and Australia.

    Rangitoto College was picked from a shortlist of over 100 New Zealand schools to make the trip.

    Later in the year students from Istanbul Lisesi will stay with the New Zealand students’ families and attend the ANZAC Day ceremonies on April 25th.

    About Canon

    Canonis the world’s leading imaging brand that actively inspires with imaginative ideas that enable people to connect, communicate and achieve more than they thought possible through imaging solutions for business and consumers. Canon has ranked among the top-four US patent recipients for the past 18 years, and had global revenues of around $US35 billion in 2009. Canon New Zealand also operates Canon Finance New Zealand which offers one-stop shopping for customers wanting leasing or finance services. For more information, visit www.canon.co.nz, www.twitter.com/canonNZ

    Released on behalf of Canon New Zealand by DonovanBoyd PR. For more great ideas on capturing that perfect moment with great digital cameras, visit the Canon website.

    For further information contact:

     

    John Boyd

    Director

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    09 379 2121 / 021 661 631

    via Press Release: Canon supports school trip to Gallipoli.

  • Turkish ambassador responds to Professor Tatz

    Turkish ambassador responds to Professor Tatz

    Oguz OzgeOguz Ozge

    What really happened to Armenians living under the Ottoman Empire in 1915, during the First World War is a matter of controversy. Armenian diaspora claims that the events of 1915 come within the realms of “genocide”, whereas Turks argue that in no way can those events be considered as such. Until the events of 1915 are legally determined by a competent international court under the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide or the Armenians and Turks come to a reconciliation over the controversy, the issue will remain a contentious one.

    In a recent National Times article Professor Colin Tatz apparently sides with the Armenian diaspora against Turkey as far as the events of 1915 are concerned. I do not intend responding to all the spurious arguments by Professor Tatz except for getting one important fact right. Professor Tatz’s claim that “some 26 nation states and more than 50 regional governments, including NSW and South Australia, ‘formally recognise’ the Turkish attempts to annihilate . . .” is misleading. It is a fact that 21 national parliaments and some regional assemblies have so far adopted resolutions favouring the Armenian arguments. The resolutions by legislative bodies are of a political nature and not binding on the governments. Consequently the claim of “formal recognition” by national states is not true and no single government has so far done so. Under what circumstances of wheeling and dealing those resolutions are passed in parliaments need not be elaborated here.
    We are convinced that the events of 1915 are not a matter for legislators to consider because we take “genocide” very seriously. That is why we believe that historians from Turkey, Armenia and third countries should come together to ascertain the facts.
    Last but not least, I wish to point out that in the past few years new claims have emerged whereby Greeks and Assyrians were also included in the list of victims by the Ottoman Empire. The scope of the so-called “genocide” list has now been further extended so as to cover the Christian population living under the Ottoman Empire. As an extension of that line of thinking it would have been misleading to exclude Anzac soldiers from such list, if the Christians had fallen victim to the so-called “genocide”. That is why a number of persons have very recently started alleging that Anzac prisoners of war were subjected to ill-treatment in camps around Gallipoli. We should not let those ill-founded arguments damage the long relationship that has been forged between Australia and Turkey out of adversity in Gallipoli.
    Oguz Ozge is the Turkish Ambassador to Australia.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/turkish-ambassador-responds-to-professor-tatz-20101116-17ux1.html, November 16, 2010