Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion and commend the member for McEwen for bringing the motion to the chamber. Congratulations to the Republic of Turkiye on the centenary of being a republic. I know that it will be celebrated at the mosques and the schools that are within cooee of my electorate. I know it's very difficult for some to celebrate at the moment, given the backdrop of the tragedies occurring in the Middle East, and I'm sure that the citizens of Turkiye feel this tragedy very deeply.

The Republic of Turkiye was founded on 29 October 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a general-turned-politician who rescued his country from the clutches of European rule after the First World War and restructured the remainder of what was once a transcontinental and multicultural Islamic empire into a lean, new Anatolian republic, intending it to resemble Europe more closely. Turkiye's history is intimately tied to Ataturk, who was described as a secular nationalist leader who prioritised development reforms and separated religion from public life. Ataturk implemented political, social and cultural reforms that changed his country forever, creating new social and political cleavages as Turkish citizens began contesting the meanings of their country's history, their symbols and their identity.

During his 15-year reign as president, Mustafa Ataturk abolished the sultanate. This drove the Ottoman royal family into exile, marking the end of a dynasty that had ruled Anatolia, the Balkans and large parts of the Middle East and North Africa for hundreds of years—quite an achievement. He also replaced the Arabic script with the Latin alphabet and enshrined women's right to vote. Ataturk died on 10 November 1938, leaving a towering legacy as a commander who rescued Anatolia from European occupation after the First World War and fanned a new nation out of the embers of the Ottoman Empire.

Even today, Ataturk is deeply venerated throughout Turkiye. His poster is seen on the walls of schools, offices and homes. I don't think there are a lot of photos of Australian politicians from between the wars on the walls of too many Australian schools. I'm told that every year, on the anniversary of Ataturk's death, in many places traffic comes to a halt as thousands observe a minute of silence. In the eighties and nineties, when those of my generation started to travel the world, they all thought that they'd discovered Turkiye for the first time. It was cheap to travel to. There were beautiful beaches. It wasn't commercialised and it had a taste of the exotic. The people were incredibly friendly, and there was a very strong association with Australia, obviously via Gallipoli.

Pilgrimages to Gallipoli have taken place since the 1920s. However, it was in the 1980s that an increased number of Australian travellers began to gather at Anzac Cove in Turkiye for the official Anzac Day ceremony. Backpackers in their hundreds would camp overnight and wait for the dawn service. This became a rite of passage for many young Australians travelling through Europe—and still is. What drove many of those young Australian travellers was their own personal family stories that connected them to Turkiye, and my generation is possibly the last generation that had a physical connection, through our great-grandfathers or great-uncles, to those that had fought on the beaches and in trenches of Gallipoli.

There were real childhood stories of Gallipoli, fanned by Peter Weir's great Australian film Gallipoli or Alan Seymour's moving play The One Day of the Year.It was a source of pride to have one's own connection to this beautiful country and its generous people who share a very poignant moment of Australian history.

Gallipoli remains an important place in the collective memory of many Australians, including within my own family. My wife's great-uncle, Private George Sedgeley Hodges of the 7th Company, Australian Machine Gun Corps, survived Gallipoli but then, like so many, died on the Western Front in 1917. My wife and I made a pilgrimage to the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium to acknowledge his remains, which, as was the case for so many Australians, were never found. Today over 33,000 Australians visit Turkiye each year.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express a sincere thankyou to the government and people of Turkiye for their ongoing support for those Anzac commemorations at Gallipoli, where I dare say not every Australian is perfectly well behaved. The commemorations proceeded this year despite the impact of February's earthquakes. We should also recognise that Turkiye is currently hosting almost four million refugees fleeing the conflict on its southern borders. Four million refugees—imagine what the Coalition would do if four million refugees turned up in boats! We should also recognise that Australian and Turkiye worked closely together in Afghanistan on the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission to help build security capacity in the country. Australia opened up our Working Holiday Maker visa program to Turkiye some years ago so young people from Turkiye can come live and work in Australia for a period of time and make a contribution, making our relationship even stronger for the next generation. Happy centenary anniversary to the people of Turkiye!

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