Monday, April 3, 2006

Ataturk.... address given in the 1930s on the defence of Gallipoli

(From the address given in the 1930s by Turkey's ruler Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who led the defence of Gallipoli in Turkey against allied invasion forces in World War I, to the grieving New Zealand and Australian families who first went there to mourn their loved ones):

"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 faraway 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.”

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