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Fun, but there should also be a few lines about Austria trying to punch Serbia and failing, Romania trying to punch Austria and failing, and Britain super promising the Arabs their freedom if they would just punch Turkey.
“There are no hard feelings because Britain made Australia do it”
Funniest and most accurate line in the whole thing
Only read if you want to cry
“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 here in this country of ours… You the mothers who 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.” - quote attributed to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Turkish commander at Gallipoli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemal_Atatürk_Memorial,_Canberra
Also, not our fault we Americans thought of bringing a barstool instead of our damn bare hands 😎
Seriously, that quote is moving me to literal tears still. God damn
First time I read it I wept, entirely unexpectedly. I’m not even Australian, or Turkish. Those last two lines hit particularly hard.
Ataturk is such a fascinating character, that seems entirely unknown to so many. He’s hardly even celebrated in modern Turkey.
Not that long ago he still held near-demigod status. I’m not real informed about the modern state of things on that front, but I’m given to understand the Islamist-oriented AKP has been trying to quietly move away from Ataturk and his secular legacy since the mid-2000s. Don’t know how successful that’s actually been, but it’s definitely quieter now.
The modern Turkish government is pushing back against the ideals he setup a century ago. It’s sad.
