International Service

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Today, we remember with great sadness the staggering loss of life among peoples who yesteryear clashed as enemies and today meet as friends.

The collective suffering forged a bond.

The men who died here were young, with all the promise of life before them - and of a similar age to the thousands of young people who are converging on this place of reverence today. They are helping to build an international community characterised by understanding and shared endeavour.

For New Zealanders, the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 changed our country's sense of who we were. When we entered the campaign, we defined ourselves within the fold of the British Empire. We emerged from the trauma of Gallipoli with a clearer sense of our independent identity as a young nation.

It was here also that we forged a deep respect for our foe, whose terrible sacrifices helped to give birth to the new Turkey, under a leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who proved himself on the soil we fought over.

Tomorrow at Chunuk Bair, New Zealand and Turkey will remember the tragedy that first brought our two countries together. We will also celebrate that which keeps us together to this day. And that common path, that common responsibility in the world, is part of what we give thanks for here today.

When New Zealanders and Australians talk of Gallipoli, they are usually referring to our landings to the north, at what is now called Anzac Cove, named after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. We tend to think of the campaign in terms of the fighting that raged inland from that stretch of coastline. In gathering here today, however, we look out on another theatre of battle - one that drew in many more nations and resulted in a much greater loss of life.

Buried in the large cemetery about us are thousands of soldiers of the Ottoman Empire who fell defending the surrounding area. Not far from here, separate cemeteries contain the graves of not only European soldiers, but also those from Asia, Africa and North America.  This is a powerful testament to the truly international nature of the conflict nine decades ago and in the words of Kemal Atatürk, sons from all these lands "are now lying in the soil of a friendly country."

Some 130,000 soldiers died on this peninsula, in a campaign that lasted less than a year. No ground changed hands permanently. The fighting did not alter the course of the war. No one side gained significant advantage.

But what did come about was the growth of a fundamental belief that through reconciliation and improved cross-cultural understanding, we can confront challenges to peace and stability anywhere in the world. The remembrance of these sacrifices reminds us of the overriding need to solve these problems peacefully, with honour, if at all possible. 

Soldiers from New Zealand, Australia, Turkey, Britain, France, Germany, India and most of the other countries who fought on both sides of the Gallipoli conflict, continue to stand together under the United Nations flag in many of the world's current trouble spots. That is a tradition worth not just remembering but also preserving.

So as we look back on the events of 1915, our gathering here today is also an opportunity to look forward - and in so doing to give thanks for the spirit of cooperation and collective resolve that marks our relations today.

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