We Will Remember Them....

This morning dawned on Anzac Day. I listened to the Dawn Service on the radio at 6.am. As always it was very moving. This service was held in Wellington at the Cenotaph next to Parliament Buildings. Dawn Services are held throughout the length and breadth of the country and the attendances at each service are increasing every year.
Anzac Day is the national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand and commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peace-keeping operations.
The day also commemorates the contribution and suffering of all those who served.
Held on April the 25th each year it originally honoured the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire in World War One.
For me, it is a day when we reflect on the cost of war and I believe it adds weight to the idea that war is futile.
Gallipoli is the event where New Zealand gained its nationhood.
Like Australia we needlessly lost a great many lives in that conflict and stories of those terrible days have become legend.
In Turkey the name "ANZAC Cove" was officially recognised by the Turkish Government on Anzac Day in 1985.
In 1934, Kemal Atatürk delivered the following words to the first Australians, New Zealanders and British to visit the Gallipoli battlefields. These words were later inscribed on a monolith at Ari Burnu Cemetery (ANZAC Beach) which was unveiled in 1985. The words also appear on the Kemal Atatürk Memorial, Canberra, and the Atatürk Memorial in Wellington:
I quote them below....

"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 far away 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."

This morning I attended the special Anzac Service held in Seymour Square here in Blenheim. I was lucky enough to have a bird's eye view from the balcony on the first floor of the council buildings. My blip today shows just part of the large crowd who attended to honour the memories of our fallen. "We will remember them"