Canberra: ANZAC Pde & Atatürk Memorial

The ANZAC Parade is set along Canberra’s Land Axis … part of the original 1912 plan for the city. At one end stands the Australian War Memorial. At the other end is Parliament House.

Any other time, we would have walked down one side of the 1.5 mile-long boulevard and up the other side to check out all the memorials that line it. But time wasn’t our friend today. We had doctor’s appointments for the crud we picked up on the train.

But before we hopped in an Uber to return to Kingston, we made time to visit the one memorial that held the most significance to us … the Kemal Atatürk Memorial. It sits at the top of the ANZAC Parade closest to the Australian War Memorial. The brochure explains that “… it is part of an agreement between Australian and Turkish governments on commemorative gestures to acknowledge the 70th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.”

The memorial is the only one on the ANZAC Parade dedicated to an individual … showing the respect in which Atatürk, commander of the Turkish Forces during the campaign and later the first president of the fledgling country, is held. At the center, is soil from Gallipoli; around the memorial are pines grown from seeds collected at Lone Pine. The crescent shape of the memorial and the five columns represent the crescent and five-pointed star on the Turkish flag.

Of course, Atatürk’s “Letters to the Mothers” holds pride of place here … as it does in every such memorial we’ve seen in Australia. And in New Zealand, for that matter.

An appropriate end to our day at the Australian War Memorial.Read more