Opening of Turkish Embassy Photo Exhibit on Canakkle: 100th Anniversary of Gallipoli

Tēna koutou kātoa, good evening.

I am delighted to have been asked to speak at the launch of this exhibition, “Çannakale: Road to Peace out of War”.

As Minister of Internal Affairs I am responsible for the National Library of New Zealand and Archives New Zealand, which function as the memory of society and the memory of government respectively.

Between them, they hold many thousands of records and treasures relating to this most important time in New Zealand’s history.

The events that took place in Turkey in 1915 during the Great War are known in New Zealand and Australia as the Gallipoli Campaign and the battle of Çannakale in Turkey.

In New Zealand, as it was in Turkey, the campaign was a nation-defining event.

In this commemorative year New Zealanders have had many opportunities to reflect on these events.

Traditionally, we focus on the Anzac spirit: the qualities of determination, stoicism and service that defined the New Zealand and Australian attitude towards the terrible losses of 1915.

This exhibition provides a further chance for visitors to look at the events of Gallipoli in another way: as evidence of how battlefield hostility has become a bedrock for a long friendship between Turkey and New Zealand.

It is fitting that this exhibition is mounted here in the gallery at Archives New Zealand.

Held here in this building, and also in the Alexander Turnbull Library and the National Library nearby, are important collections relating to New Zealanders during the First World War.

Both institutions have contributed significantly to the New Zealand Government’s programme of First World War commemoration, WW100.

They have collaborated on exhibitions, events, short films for television and the digitisation of many thousands of records, most significantly the ‘H’ series of official war photographs, and over 140,000 military personnel files.

In having these treasures readily available to them, New Zealanders are able to discover personal connections to those who served in the First World War.

I hope that this exhibition will be well-attended, and that through these photographs visitors will explore a side of the war they have not seen before, the Turkish perspective.

I am looking forward to having a closer look at the photographs later on in the evening. 

Thank you.