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"Freedom and security do not come without a price, a price too often measured in the lives of young men and women," said Foreign Affairs Minister Mr McCully, at the 96th anniversary of Anzac Day in Gallipoli.
Mr McCully addressed about 6000 people from Australia, New Zealand and around the world at the Dawn Service on a cold fine day at the Anzac Commemorative Site. The site is on the windswept coast where Anzac soldiers first landed.
"In both of our countries Anzac Day has become the day on which members of the public, especially our young people turn out in their thousands to commemorate those whose sacrifice has delivered freedoms we now take for granted," he said.
Mr McCully said of the 8,556 New Zealanders that landed at Anzac Cove, nearly a third - 2,721 - never returned home, falling and dying on the peninsula. Over half - 4,852 were wounded.
Later that day, on the hilltop where the New Zealand Memorial stands at Chunuk Bair, the Minister saw the cold waters of the Dardanelle Straits, the military objective that New Zealand soldiers must have finally glimpsed on August 8, 1915, when they reached the summit.
He told the crowd, that although the Wellington Battalion took the hilltop, after hard fighting, it was lost the following night in a counter offensive by Colonel Mustafa Kemal, known as Ataturk, against relief British troops.
He also paid tribute to New Zealanders who had fought and died for their country in other theatres of war – the Second World War, Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, Borneo and more recently Timor Leste and Afghanistan - and those serving their country now.
Mr McCully said during his visit to Afghanistan he met with the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamyan and SAS in Kabul.
"Their mission of denying a safe haven to terrorists is a reminder that today there remains threats to our security that require dedicated New Zealanders to place their lives at risk."
On April 24th, Mr McCully also had talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mr Ahmet Davutoglu and attended the Rededication of the 57th Regiment Cemetery. On Anzac Day he also attended the Australian Memorial Service, at Lone Pine and the Turkish 57th Regiment Memorial Service.
The sacrifices that thousands of brave, young New Zealand, Australian and allied forces, made at Gallipoli "will be remembered".
