Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last Saturday I was pleased to join with the local Turkish and veterans communities in Port Kembla with a wonderful ceremony named Friendship for Life. To mark this occasion, I was joined by the Turkish Consul-General, Mrs Celik, and a wreath was laid. The ceremony marks the deep friendship between Australia and the Republic of Turkey. Our nations are forever joined through the bond of blood shed during the terrible Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Each year Australians remember what the Anzacs did in war. Each year Australians travel to Turkey and to the Gallipoli Peninsula to be a part of the ceremony there that marks the remembrance of this terrible sacrifice. When they do, they see the respect that Turkey affords to Australia at the ceremonies of Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, The Neck and so many others. The principles of Friendship for Life are based on the very moving pledge by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk made to the mothers of Anzac fallen in 1934. Ataturk was not only a hero in battle; he was a hero and a leader in the peace.

See this speech in context