Anzac exhibition focuses on friendship forged in war
A NEW exhibition celebrates the unlikely bonds of friendship, formed at Gallipoli, that brought Australia and Turkey closer together.
ANZAC Centenary
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AYTUNER Akbas and his wife Suheyla only intended to stay in Australia for three years when they arrived from Turkey with their three young children in 1973.
Forty-two-years later they are still here with two grandchildren “made in Australia” and Mr Akbas, a former Turkish soldier, has made it his life’s work to deepen the understanding of Australians about the friendships between the diggers and the Turkish soldiers during the Gallipoli campaign.
That work will culminate with an Anzac Centenary Exhibition at Ramsgate RSL Memorial Club south of Sydney from April 17 to 29 featuring stunning images and stories from a book presented to him by the Governor of Cannakale (where Gallipoli is located) entitled Gallipoli 1915.
The theme of the messages and images in the exhibition relate to the futility of war with many demonstrating powerful moments of hope and even acts of friendship between men who often lived and died in trenches just a few metres apart.
Mr Akbas, a former President of the Turkish RSL sub-branch, hopes that the centenary of the campaign will shine a light on the friendships forged in battle at Gallipoli and provide an opportunity for the Australian people to better understand the Turks.
Each of the 40 or more images in the exhibition includes a story in Turkish and English and includes one showing prisoners of war being immunised by Turkish doctors.
“There was not enough medicine for the Turkish troops but they gave it to the Aussie prisoners because they were the ‘guests’,” Mr Akbas said.
“In Turkey when a guest arrives at your house you offer them everything and they are honoured by the entire village.”
When they arrived in Australia Mr Akbas toiled as a labourer and then as a taxi driver while his wife worked in a factory and as a teacher’s aide as well as raising three children.
They were often taunted with phrases such as, “You killed my grandfather”.
He said that prior to reading the book Turkish Soldiers and the Anzacas by Turkey’s first ambassador to Australia, Baba Vepa Keratay in 1999 he felt the same way and would respond with his own taunts of, “We had to defend our country, why did you travel 20,000km to my country to kill my grandpa?”
Mr Keratay had interviewed 1200 Australian veterans for his book and their words had a profound impact on Aytuner Akbas.
“When I read the book I had an overwhelming feeling of friendship,” he said.
“When I told an Australian friend the story and explained the friendship of the Turkish people to the Anzacs he was crying.”
Mr Akbas has a vast collection of material in his modest home at St Johns Park in western Sydney and he has read more than 200 books on the Gallipoli campaign.
“Everyone has to learn the message of friendship.”
Originally published as Anzac exhibition focuses on friendship forged in war
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