IN the foyer of the RSL Club where I grew up, is a stone wall over three metres tall. On it are chiselled the famous words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Turkish President and Gallipoli who were essentially invading his country.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“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 the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us.
“Where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours… You mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away the tears. Your sons now lying in our bosom and are in peace after having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.”
What could be written on a wall in Marulan, particularly one overlooking the war memorial?
A cemetery with its mosque will be the last resting place of among others, Australians who are descendants of Ataturk’s country men who had chosen to start new lives in a free and democratic country.
Marulan you should be honoured to be the guardians of those lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Dennis Bernays, Boxers Creek.
