Apology absurd for 'invasion'

By MARTIN JOHNSTON

A New Zealand historian says the call by some Australian academics for an apology to Turkey over the 1915 Anzac campaign at Gallipoli is absurd.

Dr Deborah Montgomerie, a senior lecturer in New Zealand history at the University of Auckland, said yesterday that this was because New Zealand was part of British imperial history.

"For historians, something like an apology for British imperialism is a historical absurdity."

But she acknowledged that apologies, such as those to Australian Aboriginals over Government removal of children from families, could serve political purposes.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff has said Turkey has not sought an apology and there are no plans to offer one.

Australian historian Dr Peter Stanley, one of the self-styled "Charge of the Rewrite Brigade" group of academics, has warned against being "sucked into the patriotic propaganda" about Gallipoli.

The group want Australians to apologise to the Turkish Government for what they say should be reframed as a brutal invasion, rather than a "landing".

Dr Stanley asserts that rewriting Anzac history is vital because Australians and New Zealanders believe Gallipoli was the most important factor in establishing their national identity.

But Dr Montgomerie said that historical writing was constantly being updated - as new evidence was found, and as the political climate changed.

"There's not just one historical truth. That's one of the problems. He [Dr Stanley] is setting up the idea that you just supplant one truth with another."

Calling it an invasion was more honest than seeing it as a landing, she said.

"But that's different from saying, 'You should say you're sorry'. New Zealand wasn't a sovereign country in 1915, 1916 or 1917. We can't apologise for a policy we had no control over.

"I also don't agree that New Zealanders or Australians see Gallipoli as the most important event in making a nation. Even if Gallipoli, or World War II, hadn't happened we would still be a nation. It's absurd. Gallipoli gives a focus to nationhood, but to say it's causative is, I think, an exaggeration.

"It's interesting that Gallipoli assumes so much importance because we got beaten there."