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The
words we remember
The
following was written by Pericles more than 2000 years ago, long
before the first Anzac Day, but not far from Gallipoli. Pericles,
an influential leader of Athens, was responsible for a number of
great building projects, including most of the surviving structures
on the Acropolis.
Each has won a glorious grave – not that sepulchre of earth
wherein they lie, but the living tomb of everlasting remembrance
wherein their glory is enshrined. For the whole earth is the sepulchre
of heroes. Monuments may rise and tablets be set up to them in their
own land, but on far-off shores there is an abiding memorial that
no pen or chisel has traced; it is graven not on stone or brass,
but on the living hearts of humanity.
Take these men for your example. Like them, remember that prosperity
can be only for the free, that freedom is the sure possession of
those alone who have the courage to defend it.
Engraved forever at Anzac Cove are these words from Kemal Ataturk,
the Commander of the Turkish 19th Division during the Gallipoli
Campaign and the first President of the Turkish Republic from 1924-1938.
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives. You are
now living 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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