MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people gathered across Australia and New Zealand on Friday for dawn services and street marches to commemorate their war dead on Anzac Day. At least two Australian services were disrupted by protests.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton took a day off campaigning ahead of general elections on May 3 as a mark of respect.
April 25 is the date in 1915 when the newly formed Australia and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the beaches of Gallipoli, in northwest Turkey, in an ill-fated campaign that was the soldiers' first combat of World War I.
New Zealand prime minister commemorates Anzac Day in Turkey
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon traveled to Gallipoli to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the landing day.
He told a dawn service at Anzac Cove that New Zealand’s contribution of 16,000 soldiers to the Gallipoli campaign was disproportionately large from a national population that was then only 1 million people.
“What happened here scarred generations of New Zealanders. While we remain proud of those who serve, we do not glorify what happened here. We know too much to do that," Luxon said.
“Instead, we acknowledge the courage and tenacity of the Anzacs and we respect the valor of the Ottoman Turks who resisted them,” he added.
The service was also attended King Charles III 's sister Princess Anne, who represented the British royal family, and the king's representative in Australia, Governor-General Sam Mostyn.
Charles, who is the head of state of New Zealand, sent a message thanking that country's World War II veterans for their service as the 80th anniversary of the end of that conflict nears. The New Zealand goverment was aware of 81 surviving veterans in that country, the news website Stuff said.
Albanese attended a dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in the national capital Canberra.
“Each year, we renew our vow to keep the flame of memory burning so brightly that its glow touches the next generation and the generation after that,” Albanese told a gathering of 25,000 people.
Dutton laid a wreath at a dawn service in his hometown Brisbane.
Hecklers disrupt dawn services in Melbourne and Perth
A small group of hecklers disrupted a dawn service attended by 50,000 people at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne with boos and jeers.
The booing began when a local Indigenous man Mark Brown started the service with a so-called Welcome to Country — a ceremony in which Indigenous Australians welcome visitors to their traditional land.
The interruptions continued at any mention of Indigenous soldiers.
Hecklers yelled "this is our country" and "we don't have to be welcomed," echoing a slogan of the minor party Trumpet of Patriots. The party's extensive advertising is funded by mining magnate Clive Palmer and is inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump's policies.
The hecklers were drowned out by the applause of others who urged Brown to continue.
Veteran Affairs Minister Matt Keogh said the “booing was led by someone who’s a known neo-Nazi.”
“We’re commemorating some of those soldiers who fell in a war that was fought against that sort of hateful ideology and so it was completely disrespectful and it's not something that is welcome at Anzac Day commemorations ever,” Keogh said.
Police said a 26-year-old man had been directed to leave the service.
The man had been interviewed over an allegation of offensive behavior and would be issued a summons to appear in court, a police statement said.
A heckler also disrupted the Welcome to Country at the main dawn service in the Western Australia state capital Perth.
Western Australia Premier Roger Cook condemned the interruption as “totally disrespectful” and “disgusting.”
“This is a solemn occasion. It's one where we should come together as a community and for someone to use it to make a political point and in that disrespectful way is really quite unacceptable,” Cook said.
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