(2004) Nomination of Gallipoli as the Australian Heritage List, Jan 2004

The following article published in the TheAge newspaper written by the TheAge newspaper editor in response to Mr. John Howard's claims on the Nomination of Gallipoli as the Australian Heritage List,

Jan 2004

" A place we should not call our own Anzac Cove is a special place for Australians, but it is part of Turkey.

" Few Australians who visit Anzac Cove, the beach on Turkey's Gallipoli Peninsula where the first Anzacs landed on April 25, 1915, are unmoved by the experience. Not everyone, however, would feel able to describe Anzac Cove in the terms chosen by Prime Minister John Howard.

Speaking at the launch of the Distinctively Australian program, which asks Australians to nominate places or things for inclusion in the new National Heritage list, Mr Howard nominated Anzac Cove. It was not Australian land, he conceded, but "you feel as an Australian it's as much a part of Australia as the land on which your home is built". Mr Howard said there had already been preliminary talks with the Turkish Government, which would have to consent to the listing.

What the Turkish representatives in these talks may have said is not yet known. But it is reasonable to surmise that, whatever they might ultimately decide about the heritage request, they would have been astonished, and probably affronted, by any assertion that Anzac Cove was as much a part of Australia as any house in suburban Melbourne.

Perhaps this form of words was just clumsiness on the part of the Prime Minister, but he has uttered them. And, even if he had not - and even if the Turkish Government indulges the request - the notion of declaring some region or site in another country to be part of Australia's National Heritage is arrogant and insensitive.

Although the declaration would be a formal territorial claim, it presumes that the country in which the site is located should acquiesce to Australia's view of the site's significance. There is no reason why the Turks should do so. They have their own reasons for thinking of Anzac Cove as special.
For one thing, the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustapha Kemal, commanded the Turkish forces there. But above all, Anzac Cove is their land, and we should not forget that the fallen Australians buried there - whose graves have always been honoured by the Turks - were invaders in a land that is not ours.

Gallipoli is not the only place where Australian graves are honoured. Each year the village of Villers-Bretonneux, near Amiens in northern France, commemorates its liberation by Australian troops in 1918, and above all the blackboards in the village's Victoria School are the words "Never forget Australia". Does the Prime Minister think Villers-Bretonneux should be listed as part of Australia's National Heritage? And what about other places in the world whose names are - for Australians - bound up with the exploits and ordeals of Australian soldiers, names such as Beersheba, Damascus, Tobruk, Crete, El Alamein, Changi, Hellfire Pass, Milne Bay, Kokoda and Long Tan? The list is a long one, and will be longer.

We should always honour those who died in these places, but that does not mean we have the right to claim the ground in which they are buried as part of our heritage."
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/02/1072908904857.html

Response to the above 'Theage' newspaper editorial by J.G.Arslan:
Original letter:
RE: Editorial regarding the listing of Anzac Cove for Heritage Listing As founder of the Australia-Gallipoli Friendship Society, I welcome your editorial on 03/01/04 and can't understand what Our PM John Howard is trying achieve with his idea to try and list Anzac Cove on a heritage list.. Does this mean that the Japanese can ask to list Darwin and other areas within Australia, where Japanese invading forces "Soldiers" died during their aggression, onto the Japanese Heritage list?The friendship and respect between Australians and Turks can be seen when one visits Anzac Cove, with the hospitality and respect shown towards the Australians. Trying to gain control of land belonging to a sovereign nation through a heritage listing can only cause suspicion. I will not go into detail as your editorial outlined all the facts graciously. However, I will remind everyone of what Mustafa Kemal Ataturk the commander in charge in the defense of Gallipoli said in relation to the fallen Anzacs."Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives.. . You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. There is no difference between the Jonnies and the Mehmets to uswhere they lie side by side herein this country of ours.You 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. " M.K.Ataturk, 1934. It is in the Turkish Culture to show respect and understand and therefore, Anzac Cove and the war memorial does not need red tape listings in order to be maintained meticulously. Gallipoli is where the younger generations can meet not as invader and defender but as a place of mutual respect and understanding. In fact the Gallipoli conflict saw the birth of both peoples into Nations. Yours Truly,"
J.Gul ArslanFounder of Australia-Gallipoli Friendship Society Inc.For more information please visit; http://www.ausgallipoli.com


TheAge Newspaper published the above letter as the following:
"As the founder of the Australia-Gallipoli Friendship Society, I welcome your editorial (3/1) and can't understand what Prime Minister John Howard is trying achieve with his idea to try to list Anzac Cove on a heritage list. The friendship and respect between Australians and Turks can be seen when one visits Anzac Cove, with the hospitality and respect shown towards the Australians. Trying to gain control of land belonging to a sovereign nation through a heritage listing can only cause suspicion."
J. Gul Arslan, founder, Australia-Gallipoli Friendship Society
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/08/1073437407148.html