Archbishop Of Canterbury Visits The Gallipoli Memorial
Gallipoli & Dardanelles
Posted On 04/01/2015
A visit was made in late December 2014 to the Gallipoli Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby. The Archbishop, whose grandfather served at Gallipoli with the Indian Army, visited the Aboretum on Friday, 19 December 2014. After visiting the Gallipoli Memorial, the Archbishop went on to visit three other memorials at the Arboretum—the Normandy Veterans Memorial, the Shot At Dawn Memorial and the Armed Forces Memorial. The purpose of the Archbishop’s visit was to record his Annual Christmas and New Year Message for the BBC in the Millennium Chapel of Peace and Forgiveness. Nadir Imamoğlu showed the Archbishop of Canterbury the Gallipoli Memorial which the former conceived and designed ten years ago. Later, the Archbishop and Mr Imamoğlu enjoyed a relaxed and informal Christmas lunch together. At the Gallipoli Memorial the Archbishop of Canterbury read Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s profound words of forgiveness from 1934:
“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 faraway 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.”
(photo courtesy National Memorial Arboretum)
