Daily Archives: April 25, 2015

Tens of thousands of people have converged on central Sydney for this morning’s Anzac Day commemorations.

An estimated 20,000 serving and ex-service personnel have taken part the march through the CBD, supported by thousands of people who lined the streets.

This year marks 100 years since the first landings at Gallipoli, where more than 8,000 Australian soldiers died.

The Governor of New South Wales, General David Hurley, led the march off from the cenotaph in Martin Place.

Diggers who were unable to join the parade on foot were then taken down the route in taxis before the main parade.

Victor Smith served in the Royal Australian Corps Transport in Vietnam.

He said the number of people coming to watch the march was amazing.

“I think it’s marvellous, absolutely marvellous,” Mr Smith said.

“It’s just the one day of the year when I meet my comrades and we meet and remember several people who didn’t make it.”

Anzac Day is a chance for Don Newton to see some of the six men who he served with in Malaya from 1961 to 1962.

He said Anzac Day was relevant to all past and current conflicts.

“I think it’s getting bigger,” Mr Newton said.

“It’s lovely to see all the young ones coming and seeing what we did in that time away.”

Barbara Coward served in the Air Force in World War II. It is her first time marching and she said it was a poignant day.

Photo: A military horse represented fallen diggers during the Sydney march. (ABC News: Joanna Woodburn)

“It was the first time we united with the New Zealand people and became Anzacs,” she said.

Bill Skues, 91, has attended the Anzac Day commemorations every year since 1948.

“It’s good to see the young ones turning up,” he said.

“Years ago we never had any young ones around the place at all.

“[I think] more news gets out, things are explained to them a bit better.”

While there are no surviving World War I diggers, they are being represented in the march by a military horse.

Thousands gather for dawn service

Earlier, up to 30,000 people gathered in Sydney’s Martin Place for the dawn service commemorating the centenary of Anzac Day.

Photo: Scenes from World War I were projected onto the buildings around the cenotaph in Martin Place. (ABC News)

Large projections depicting scenes from World War I lit up the buildings around the cenotaph as people gathered to hear readings and music marking 100 years since the landings at Gallipoli.

Some regular Anzac Day attendees told the ABC today was the biggest turn-out they had ever seen.

Dignitaries and guests from New Zealand and Turkey laid wreaths on the cenotaph.

The wreath laying was led by the New South Wales Governor, General David Hurley, who highlighted the enduring ANZAC spirit.

“To me the spirit of Anzac has three elements – when you give Australia job to do, we will give it our best shot, whatever the results, failure, or success,” he said.

“When we do this job you have asked of us, we will do it in a manner of which you will be proud. And while we’re doing the job, we will look after our mates and especially look after them when all is done.”

General Hurley said the anniversary of World War I presented the opportunity to produce a revised Anzac legacy for a new generation of Australians.

Families camp out to mark 100 years since Gallipoli

Photo: Amy Earl, Lucy Browne and Vanessa Fedoseeva from Catherine McAuley College attended the Camp Gallipoli event at Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter. (ABC News: Claire Aird)

A number of the people at the service said they felt it was especially important to attend this year.

One man said he had commemorated every Anzac Day since he joined up to the Air Force in 1957.

“I remember a lot of our friends who’re not with us no more. It’s one of the greatest things in a serviceman’s life is remembering your mates, because we’re all like family,” he said.

One woman said she had no problem with getting up so early to attend.

“It’s not suffering, what we undertake, it’s just an honouring of the people who fell in war, not just at that particular war but over all time, the sacrifices people have made for Australia,” she said.

In the city’s east, about 6,000 families, community groups and school children spent the night under the stars at the Camp Gallipoli event.

The sleep-out was moved from Centennial Park to the Entertainment Quarter next door after torrential rain earlier this week.

The camp aims to help children find a sense of national identity by understanding the qualities embodied by the Anzacs.

East Lindfield Public School student Sasha Oaten lobbied her principal to organise a school excursion to the event.

“I’m really interested in World War I and being here for the centenary is really special,” she said.

Sasha’s mother Katherine Oaten said preparing for the camp encouraged her family to look deeper into its own history.

“As a result of this camp, we’ve found that we have three descendants who were part of World War I,” she said.

“We found three medals in a drawer at home from my husband’s grandfather that we didn’t know we had.

“Not only was he gassed during the war, he was knifed by one of the German soldiers, he was quite traumatised.

“It’s an emotional day for us.”

High school students from Catherine McAuley College entered an essay competition to secure a place at the event.

Year Nine student Lucy Browne said her great-grandfather fought in World War I and she wanted to honour his legacy.

“Mateship means standing together as one and supporting each other,” she said.

source:abc.net.au

Marchers created a mesmerizing blur of brightly colored flags Friday as they walked through the streets west of downtown Los Angeles to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide..

Participants had a common, persistent theme, calling for recognition of the deaths of about 1.2 million Armenians as a genocide. Other estimates range to 1.5 million.

Many held nearly identical azure signs that thanked various countries for recognizing the Armenian genocide. President Obama has not used the word “genocide” in connection with the massacres since coming to office — and his name was greeted with boos at a ceremony before the march.

Many signs voiced forceful messages: “We Demand Justice” and “Turkey Must Pay.”

The procession was multigenerational, with small children riding atop parents’ shoulders; older women linked arms for balance as they moved forward.

One group chanted a traditional song, which competed with the whir of helicopters overhead.

Morning traffic was especially bad on the 101 Freeway on Friday between the San Fernando Valley and downtown, possibly due to events commemorating the genocide, according to the California Highway Patrol. The northbound and southbound offramps at Sunset Boulevard were scheduled to be closed until noon to accommodate marchers. Local street closures also caused traffic tie-ups.

In the streets, participants paused briefly to join voices in an Armenian prayer, some making signs of the cross.

A century ago, Ottoman Turkish authorities had targeted Armenian Christians in the mass killings. Modern day Turkish authorities have expressed regret at the loss of life but denied that there was a systematic plan to kill Armenians. They contest the use of the word “genocide,” attributing the casualties to the harsh events of war.

Obama’s reluctance to use the word is in apparent deference to Turkey, a country that has become a key American ally in that part of the world.

Tarzana resident Anna Karapetian, 31, said her family and others were torn apart, never knowing what happened to some family members, leaving an everlasting scar, she said.

“There’s always a missing puzzle, a missing piece in their families as far as who they are and who they’re going to be … regardless of how many years go by,” Karapetian said.

Karapetian brought her 6-year-old daughter, Sofie Tigeranian, who proudly sported a purple forget-me-not flower.

Sofie had decorated a sign with a large Armenian flag and a sketch of a gun with a red “X” over it.

“The seeds are there,” Karapetian said, referring to the poster and her daughter.

Passing on language, religion and culture ensures the tragedy won’t be forgotten and that future generations will know where they came from, she added.

“There’s so much light shining on Armenia,” she said. “We waited many, many years for this to happen. It’s a new beginning for us.”

The six-mile trek began in Little Armenia and will conclude formally at 6 p.m. in the 6300 block of Wilshire Boulevard, the location of the Turkish Consulate General of Los Angeles.

Just before the march began, Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian added his own family’s narrative to the tales of suffering recounted among those gathered.

He talked of his great-grandmother having received a letter about what happened to her brother, a math professor at Euphrates College, a school in eastern Turkey.

The brother had been seized by Turkish authorities and had his beard pulled from his face. His torturers then cut out his tongue and left him to die.

“For my family and for many of us that are here, we don’t need any help in remembering the Armenian genocide because it is deeply personal to us,” Krekorian said.

He spoke Friday morning in Little Armenia, at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue, which was dedicated as Armenian Genocide Memorial Square.

“The step that we’re taking today,” Krekorian said. “And the many steps that will be taken together arm in arm… Those steps that will be taken will be heard throughout California and throughout America. Hopefully they’ll be heard in Washington, D.C.”

Before the march, Elizabeth Marks, a Studio City resident, recounted that 100 years ago today, her father, at age 14, was deported and forced to march across the desert.

Although her father never talked about what happened, Marks found his manuscripts and penned a newly published novel, “Zaven’s Destiny: A Childhood Lost to the Armenian Genocide.”

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Obama on Thursday said the massacre was the “first mass atrocity of the 20th century.” Although he has not used the term genocide while in office — after pledging to do so as a candidate for president — he defended his record in recognizing what happened.

“I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed,” Obama said in a statement. “A full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts is in all our interests. Peoples and nations grow stronger, and build a foundation for a more just and tolerant future, by acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past.”

source: latimes.com

From left, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Irish President Michael Higgins, his wife Sabina Higgins and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Margie Abbott attend the Commonwealth and Irish Memorial Service at Cape Helles in Seddulbahir, Turkey. Photo: Getty Images

Seddulbahir, Turkey: Prince Charles and Prince Harry made their appearance at an eve of Anzac Day centenary ceremony on Friday afternoon at Cape Helles on the southwestern-most tip of Gallipoli peninsular in Turkey.

In bright sunshine they attended the ceremony at the Helles Memorial along with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his wife Margie and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Irish President Michael D Higgins.

Mr Abbott had spent the day touring key battle sites on the peninsula. Prince Charles read an extract from Gallipoli by John Masefield and Prince Harry chose an extract from The Bathe by AP Herbert.

The Last Post was played by a trumpeter of the Prince of Wales’s Division Band. A ceremonial gun firing from HMS Bulwark, flagship of the Royal Navy was then followed by a minute’s silence for those who served their countries and perished during the campaign.

Mr Abbott placed a wreath at the same time as his New Zealand counterpart, John Key.

One hundred years on from the landings, the Turkish again demonstrated their military skills with an aerobatic display by the Turkish Stars of the Turkish Air Force trailing red smoke.

Mounted Turkish gendarmes dressed as World War I Ottoman Turkish soldiers ride horses near the Helles Memorial, as the HMAS Anzac of the Australian Navy sails past. Photo: Getty Images

A Flotilla of Turkish and international navy vessels including HMAS Anzac sat off the Gallipoli peninsula in the Dardanelles. Security was tight with armed officers overlooking the scene.

The Helles Memorial marks the place of commemoration for many Commonwealth servicemen who have no known grave and stands on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

It takes the form of an obelisk over 30 metres high that can be seen by ships passing through the Dardanelles.

The Helles Memorial was built in 1924 and bears more than 21,000 names of British and Commonwealth servicemen who died there and have no known grave.
The Helles Memorial was built in 1924 and bears more than 21,000 names of British and Commonwealth servicemen who died there and have no known grave. Photo: AP

It has several panels for those who died or were buried at sea in Gallipoli waters. The memorial bears more than 21,000 names.

source:smh.com.au