Monday, 25 April 2022

08:10 Veterans Minister Meka Whaitiri from Gallipoli

Veterans Minister Meka Whaitiri is leading the New Zealand delegation at the  Anzac commemorations at Gallipoli in Turkey. It's the first official New Zealand delegation to attend since 2019. 

08:25 The changing face of Anzac commemorations, 1965 - 2015

Visits by New Zealand and Australian political leaders to Gallipoli on Anzac Day have been common for decades. But go back a little further and it was much more low key. Ahead of the 1965 commemorations the contributions of the New Zealand government were described as 'mean and shabby'. Those words appear in a new book by historian Rowan Light from Auckland University. Anzac Nations traces the changing shape of Anzac commemorations in New Zealand and Australia over the fifty years to 2015. 

09:06 Defence force chief Air Marshal Kevin Short

As we remember those who fell at Gallipoli and other past wars current events are sadly proving that war is still very much with us. And New Zealand is operating on the fringes of the biggest current conflict - the war in Ukraine. An air force Hercules transport plane is now in Europe helping to shift military aid towards Ukraine, but without entering that country. Air Marshal Kevin Short  is the Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force.

09:16 The future direction of New Zealand foreign policy

The war in Ukraine is prompting radical changes to the way some smaller countries think about defence. Sweden and Finland have long been neutral but the Ukraine conflict is pushing them towards membership of NATO. Closer to home tensions between China and Taiwan have led some observers to speculate that war in the South China Sea could erupt in the future. So how should New Zealand position itself in the years ahead and is it time to ramp up our involvement with traditional allies like Australia and the United States? Geoffrey Miller is with the Democracy Project at Victoria University and writes about New Zealand foreign policy. ​ 

09:35 Vietnam veterans to hold overdue reunion

Last December was fifty years since one of the last New Zealand rifle companies left Vietnam but because of Covid-19 restrictions veterans from that war are still waiting to hold a reunion. Three thousand New Zealanders served in Vietnam between 1965 and 1972. Andy Peters served as a machine gunner in the New Zealand Army's Victor Four company and he's now the President of the Vietnam Veteran's Association. He says hundreds of veterans are planning a long awaited reunion in Christchurch in November. 

 

10:05 Turkey nears 100 years as a republic

Next year will be the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was elected as the country's first president. He was also the man perhaps most instrumental in defeating the Anzac and Allied forces at Gallipoli in 1915. He led the Turkish counter attacks which swept New Zealand troops off Chunuk Bair, the dominant range of hills on the peninsula which came to define defeat or victory. Later as President he transformed Turkey into a secular country. New civil and legal codes were adopted along European lines. The wearing of the traditional Fez headwear was outlawed and the Turkish alphabet was changed into Latin script. But what sort of country is Turkey today under the government of President Erdogan? Ece Temelkuran is a Turkish writer who's written books about her homeland like The Insane and the Melancholy. 

10:30 Anzac Day service in Seoul

New Zealanders abroad are marking Anzac Day. In South Korea's capital, Seoul, staff from the New Zealand Embassy held a service at the local war memorial museum. Philip Turner is New Zealand's ambassador to South Korea.

10:40 Hastings to erect statue of Dolly the war horse

About ten thousand New Zealand horses served in the First World War but only four made it home. One of them was Dolly who was the war horse of the decorated Hawke's Bay soldier Sir Andrew Russell, whose statue stands in the Civic Square in Hastings. The city's mayor, Sandra Hazlehurst, says a fundraising effort is underway to erect a statue of Dolly to stand alongside that of Sir Russell's.