Have ''feel for Turkey," Australians: Peter Cosgrove

Turkey has emerged as saviour for the refugees who got displaced by the Syrian conflict. On the Gallipoli Peninsula on Thursday, Governor-General Peter Cosgrove said that Australians “should feel for Turkey.”

Before the 100th anniversary commemoration of the Lone Pine Battle, Cosgrove urged the Australians to show some support for the Turks, who are taking a very good care of victims of the conflict of Syria. The Syria conflict indicates the security problems and unstable border conditions faced by Turkey, he concluded.

“While in that respect it is profoundly a problem for the Turks, we must do whatever we can to support peaceful outcomes. Peaceful outcomes obviously means there are no more atrocities happening across Turkey’s borders,” Cosgrove said to the media personnel while referring to the terror attacks by Islamic State group in Syria.

In addition to providing support to the Turks, he also made it clear that how important the cooperative arrangements between Turkish and Australian governments are for them to proceed with terrorism issue. Cosgrove, on Australian commitment to Iraq, said, “We have a relationship with Iraq, an Iraq that struggles now and I think it’s quite proper that we are supporting Iraq in their particular problem.”

On the Lone Pine commemoration, Cosgrove was accompanied by the parents of Cameron Baird, a Victoria Cross winner who was killed in Afghan actions in 2013. Along with Baird’s parents, other VC winners also attended the ceremony, including Mark Donaldson, Keith Payne and Daniel Keighran, to mark the anniversary of the battle that claimed the death of around 800 Australians and wounded 1,500 in severe fights on Turkish trenches.

Addressing Gallipoli as the milestone in the Turkish-Australian relationship, Cosgrove said that the bond is still continuing and has strengthened over the years.

Cosgrove remembered the 57 th Regiment of Turkey on Thursday and said to the reporters, “On the first day of the landings the 57 th Regiment played a crucial role in stopping the Australian and allied advance to the high ground. This regiment spent itself for Turkey.”

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