ANZAC Day

Today is ANZAC Day, in many ways the real national day for Australia (equally important in New Zealand). The ANZACs were the Australia-New Zealand Army Corps, a unit organized after the outbreak of World War I; Australia and New Zealand enthusiastically supported the British Empire in this war and their men enlisted in huge numbers. The ANZACs were sent, with British and French forces, to invade the Gallipoli peninsula of Turkey, in Winston Churchill's effort to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war quickly by seizing Constantinople. The Allies landed on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, the beginning of a bloody and ultimately futile campaign that by the time the Allies withdrew in late 1915 saw over 8000 Australians killed (and 2800 New Zealanders, over 29,000 British, and about 10,000 French). It was also a campaign that forged the reputation of Kemal Ataturk, a Turkish general who went on to found the modern Republic of Turkey out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire, and preserved Turkey from French, Greek, and Italian territorial designs after the war.

Australia doesn't have a date like the 4th of July to commemorate a sharp break with Britain, since Australian independence (like Canadian) was gained gradually and with the consent of Britain. It doesn't have a date like the 14th of July (Bastille Day in France) to remember a sharp break with the old regime, since Australia's system of government has also changed gradually. There has been no invasion of Australia (although the Aborigines don't agree) to remember. So Gallipoli in many ways was the first real shock to Australia -- and a battle where all of the states of Australia (plus neighbors in New Zealand) contributed troops to a collective army. Although the 8000 killed in Turkey were a fraction of the 58,000+ Australians killed in the First World War, Gallipoli was the first introduction of Australia to the brutality of modern war. And remember that although in the context of the terrible losses suffered in that war, 8000 doesn't sound like a lot, the male population of Australia at the time was less than 3 million.

One thing I find inspiring about all this is how this terrible campaign has forged real friendship between Australia and Turkey. There is even a memorial to Ataturk at the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra, and thousands of Aussies are greeted by Turkey every year at Anzac Cove, as the Turks now call the bay where the Aussies and New Zealanders landed over 90 years ago.