Wednesday, April 25, 2007

25 April, 1915

Kemal Atatürk Memorial, ANZAC Parade, Canberra, Australia
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 now here in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway 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.
—Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1934

3 Comments:

At 12:38 am, Blogger tigtog said...

Where are today's Ataturks?

About the only current statesman I could imagine saying (and meaning) anything similiar would be Mandela.

 
At 4:27 pm, Blogger Anntichrist S. Coulter said...

How beautiful.

If only there were a purpose behind the profiteering scum who are shedding the blood of our children on the desert sands of Iraq.

If only we were truly benefiting the people of Iraq and truly freeing them from the tyrants of Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater, Shaw Group, etc., perhaps then they might someday embrace our sacrificed young in this way. But they won't. And they will never truly receive the honor and the love that they deserve for losing their lives to this crime.

 
At 8:24 am, Blogger Mentis Fugit said...

Ataturk has his own sins to expiate - great sins - and he was no Mandela, but that does not deny the power of those words.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home