Subject: Bilateral discussions; East Timor; Turkish earthquakes; Gallipoli
E&OE …………………………………………………………………
PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT:
We are very glad that we are hosting the distinguished Prime Minister of Australia in Ankara together with distinguished friends and it’s a very interesting occasion on which you are here Mr Prime Minister. Namely this is the national sovereignty day, the 80th birthday of the Turkish Parliament and the Children’s Day. You are most welcome on all these occasions and you will be visiting on Tuesday Gallipoli Peace Park in Dardenelles which is very dear to our hearts also. As I told you in the office according to my knowledge it is the only case of adversaries, sympathising with each other and respecting each other. Normally wars lead to enmity and hate but in the case of the Dardenelles war it led to mutual sympathy and respect between the adversaries. It’s a unique phenomena and we are very glad that you will be visiting the cemeteries. Very, very friendly and constructive conversation with the Prime Minister and we both admitted that true economic and business co-operation between our two countries has not been utilised thus far but we are, I’m sure, the Australian Government agrees with us that we should further cooperate in the economic field and in other fields in educatonal fields and we have had a fruitful discussion on the general political problems in the world. I believe it will be very worthwhile if a permanent mechanism of political dialogue also is established between our two countries. Over 100,000 Turks are Australian citizens of Turkish origin in Australia. Many children and I suppose also of Australian origin as citizens and this provides another link of friendship and cooperation between our two countries. Thank you again Sir for visiting our country.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well Prime Minister can I say how warmly I, my wife and my party have been received by your Government. There is a particular character to the relationship between Australia and Turkey. The Prime Minister has written a lovely poem about Gallipoli which I had the opportunity to read a little while ago and he was kind enough to give me a gift of a video which illustrates that and that drives home to me the way in which the people of Turkey remember not in hostility or enmity, but in respect and out of a mutual desire not to see that kind of loss of life again as the events in the Dardenelles of 85 years ago which I will honour on behalf of the Government and the people of Australia on Tuesday, along with the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
The bilateral relationship between Australia and Turkey is in very good shape. I think both of us agreed that we needed to put some more effort into the economic side of it. The human side of it is very strong. There are 100,000 and 150,000 Australian’s of Turkish background, all fully and in a very positive way part of the Australian community. The entire Australian nation reacted with a great deal of sadness to the tragic earthquake in Turkey last year and that was not just an expression of the feelings of Turkish Australians but also of the entire Australian community.
The Prime Minister and I have had an opportunity to talk about a wide range of international issues, of course Turkey is in a very special place in the world because of her links with not only Europe and Asia but with also many of the former republics of the old Soviet Union and of course a knowledge of Balkan politics which is second to none and we’ve also, particularly in the light of my forthcoming visit to Israel, which will include a call on the Palestinian leader, Yassar Arafat, we’ve had an opportunity of talking about the situation in the Middle East.
I did take the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister for Turkey’s contribution to the ongoing peace-keeping operation under the umbrella of the United Nations in East Timor. That has been very gratefully received but can I say Prime Minister that Janette and I our party have really been greatly touched by the warmth of the people of Turkey and the Government of Turkey and we’re very happy to be here and I’m sure that out of the visit the bilateral relationship will be further strengthened.
PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT:
Thank you. And I would like to thank again Mr Howard for the very friendly and warm that Australians and Australian government has extended to the victims of the earthquakes last year. Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST:
Louise Dodson from the Australian Financial Review. I wonder if both prime ministers could elaborate on what they have in mind for strengthening the economic relationship?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well a couple of things that we could do are to get move on the double taxation agreement. We could get our officials to set a date for the next joint economic committee meeting and we could also look at whether there can be any agreements set up between our two countries that will further encourage investment.
JOURNALIST:
My question also is to both prime ministers, how did the Eurogold company come into the discussions that you had with the Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I noted that the official approvals had been given by Turkish authorities for the activity to go ahead and I’m, we’re always pleased when Australian companies obtain approvals to do things they seek to do.
PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT:
I am hopeful that we shall reach an agreement. It is of course up to the judiciary, the courts etc, we cannot take definite decisions by the Government alone, but we hope that a settlement will be reached.
Yes please. That’s all?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister Howard, I would just like to ask how you felt today when you laid the wreath at the Ataturk Memorial. Your words in the official books were quite personal and touching on behalf of Australia. How does it feel for you to be here in Turkey, representing Australia and marking Anzac Day and reflecting on the two countries relationship?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well, it’s a very moving experience. I am conscious of the history. I am very conscious of the incredible sacrifice and loss of Australian lives all those years ago, and I will obviously say something further about that on Anzac Day on Gallipoli. I am also very conscious that he was an honoured opponent. And I told the Prime Minister that I remembered as a boy attending an Anzac Day concert in the Sydney Town Hall as a member of the choir, and none of the Australian Gallery should laugh at that! And the Anzac Day march on that occasion had involved the participation for the first time of a Turkish army officer, and that was back in 1953. And it was done with the, at the instigation and the approval of the RSL, and it was an indication of the particular respect, despite the ferocity of the fighting and the incredible loss of life, and the sadness that that visited upon homes in Australia, of course it visited on homes in Turkey. Because the loss of life on the Turkish side was absolutely horrific. You know, I guess it brought home to me a lot of things, a mix of emotions, the terrible waste and futility of war, the young lives destroyed and cut short on all sides – just a lesson to all of us about how absolutely evil and diabolic a war is. And you . . . one experiences all of those emotions and I thought of that incident all those years ago after I laid the wreath and something came back to mind that it was something that happened, when you think of . . . when you try and transpose that to the representative of another former enemy country, I can’t imagine that it would have happened. And I think it says something of the character of the relationship between the two countries.
JOURNALIST:
I wonder if we could hear something of the poem and the background to the writing of that poem.
PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT:
Background to the poem?
JOURNALIST:
To the writing of the poem – how you came to write it.
PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT:
Well one day I was travelling from Gallipoli to Istanbul with my wife, it was a rainy day and we thought that we should visit the cemeteries. And I was so bitterly impressed that we returned to the cemeteries later on to take notes from the inscriptions of the tombstones and later I joined together those inscriptions of the tombstones and tried to make a poem out of it. It’s not a war poem, it’s a post-war poem. And it’s, it was a very touching experience for me. I was also inspired by a message of Ataturk in the 30’s, to the relatives of the dead in Gallipoli. It’s a very touching…I am sure you have read it Mr Prime Minister. Every Turk has the same kind of feelings that Prime Minister Mr Howard expressed a while ago. It has been a strange war that paid respect among the adversaries as he said and it showed as the Prime Minister has said, the futility of wars. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
The Prime Minister’s modesty prevents him from telling you, the Australian gallery, that he has, amongst his many literary accomplishments, is a very detailed translation of T S Eliot into Turkish.
PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT:
Thank you everyone.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Thank you.
[ends]