Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has remembered the fallen and their loved ones at the Anzac service at Gallipoli today.,
He has also emphasised the importance of always seeking peace so their lives will not have been lost in vain.
“We meet here to commemorate the ground around us as the final resting place of far too many of our young men. Turkish, British, Australian and New Zealand men,” he said.
“We meet at dawn to commemorate the terrible loss of so many lives, yet we cannot hallow these grounds. The men who died here have already made sacred the ground upon which we come every twenty-fifth of April.
“What we can do is remember their sacrifice while reflecting on their appalling loss.”
Drawing on the experience of one wartime mother, Peters referred to the case as an example of the heartbreak of war for many families.
“Doug Hill, among us today, is the great grandson of Mrs. Eliza O’Donnell. Mrs. O’Donnell had two sons fight at Gallipoli. One son, Jack, died here, the other son Bill survived, only to die at Messines. Another son, Edward, lost his leg at Passchendaele. A son-in-law was killed in France.
“Anzac Day for Doug, as with all of us gathered here this morning, reveals how our memories link the past with the present, and bind our efforts to learn from history so as never to repeat its worst expression, war.”
Peters said “we live in troubled times and must find a peaceful path forward”.
“Yet we live in a troubled world, the worst in memory. We have emerged from a global pandemic a more divided world. Regional instabilities and the chaos they create threaten the security of too many,” he said.
“So we must all do more. Demand more. And deliver more.”
He said New Zealand must always seek peace if it is to honour those who had fallen.
“Never has diplomacy been more needed to de-escalate conflicts and ease tensions. That is our lesson and resolve when leaving Gallipoli today.
“You will create your own memories and draw your own lessons from being here. But we must all come together, as people and as nations, to do more to honour those who paid with their lives.
“We must protect and care for our young. We must reject and resist those who seek to conquer and control. We must always seek the path of peace.
“Then, and only then, will the men buried here not have died in vain,” Peters said.