#Remembrance Day WWI if I can dream reflections peace

[anselmo-notes]

“From Heroes to Harmony: A Remembrance Day Reflection.”

With Remembrance Day on the horizon, it’s time to honor the heroes who selflessly gave their all for the cause of peace. These soldiers, guardians of our cherished values, merit our heartfelt gratitude. Yet, as we commemorate their sacrifices, let’s not forget the unsettling truth behind many conflicts—the insidious greed for power that propels nations into war. Throughout history, this desire…

[todaynewsstories]

World leaders gather in Paris to mark 100 years since WWI Armistice | News | DW

Some 70 world leaders gathered at the famous Arc de Triomphe in the French capital, Paris, on Sunday to mark 100 years since the end of World War One.

Commemorations in Paris had been scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. local time (1000 UTC), the time that the Armistice signed by the Allies and the Germans on November 11, 1918, went into force. However, the proceedings were slightly delayed, with leaders arriving too late for the exact moment.

The large number of countries represented in Paris reflects the widespread nature of a conflict in which an estimated 37  million people, including 10 million soldiers, lost their lives. The city of Paris itself was a key objective in the war, with the Allies fighting successfully against German efforts to capture it in 1914.

Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary

New Zealand leads the remembrance

A 10-cannon salute was held at the Wellington waterfront on Sunday morning to mark the armistice centenary. A kilometer away at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, hundreds of people gathered for a service attended by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Some 100,000 New Zealand soldiers and nurses served overseas in World War I, and more than 16,000 never came back.

Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary

Poppies adorn Sydney Opera House

The sails of Sydney’s iconic opera house were illuminated with red poppies for Remembrance Day to signify the bright red flowers that grew on the Western Front battlefields following the war. Around a sixth of Australia’s then less than 5 million population enlisted to fight. More than half of them were either killed, wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.

Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary

Asian countries pay respects to war dead

Observances were held in Myanmar and Hong Kong (pictured), where school children laid wreaths in remembrance at the Cenotaph war memorial, while veterans saluted. In India, a ceremony at New Delhi’s War Cemetary was attended by relatives of many soldiers. The Indian Army sent a million troops to Africa, the Middle East and Europe to fight in World War I.

Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary

World leaders gather in Paris

A moving armistice ceremony was held in Paris, watched by around 70 world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump. The leaders missed the exact moment of the armistice anniversary as they were running late. The memorial included classical music and the reading aloud of letters by WWI soldiers.

Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary

Millions of fallen soldiers remembered

France’s Republican guards took part in the parade close to Paris’ Arc de Triomphe. At the exact moment 100 years ago that Allied and German weapons fell silent, French Fighter jets passed over the commemorations. Hundreds of miles away, bells rang across Europe’s Western Front, the main theater of conflict during World War I.

Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary

Britain’s royals lay wreaths

Britain’s commemorations at the Cenotaph war memorial in London were led by the Queen, who watched from a nearby balcony, and Prime Minister Theresa May. Princes William and Harry also laid wreaths for the 900,000 British soldiers killed in the ‘Great War.’

Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary

Steinmeier’s ‘historic act of reconciliation’

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the first German head of state to attend the annual Remembrance commemorations in London. The British government said before the ceremony that he would lay the wreath at the Cenotaph “on behalf of the German people in a historic act of reconciliation.” Germany lost 1.8 million soldiers out of 13 million mobilized for World War I.

Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary

Respect for lives lost on the Eastern Front

While Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the armistice centenary observance in Paris, Russia’s military paid its own respects at a cemetery for WW1 heroes near St Petersburg. Members of military history clubs donned ‘Great War’-era military uniforms to mark the occasion. More than 2.4 million Russians lost their lives in one of the world’s most devasting conflicts.

Author: Nik Martin

The solemn ceremony, held in rainy conditions, featured schoolchildren reading moving messages written by soldiers in eight languages, as well as musical performances, including by French-born Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma and West African singer Angelique Kidjo.

Patriotism, not nationalism

French President Emmanuel Macron held an address in which he described the joy at the end of the conflict, but also remembered the horrors and millions of dead and wounded.

In his speech, he called the nationalism that underlay the war a betrayal of patriotism. He appealed for friendship and dialogue between the nations to create a peaceful future.

“The old demons are rising again,” Macron said. “We must reaffirm before our peoples our true and huge responsibility: that of passing on to our children the world that previous generations dreamed of.”

“Together, we can banish the specters of climate change, poverty, hunger, illness, all the inequalities and every ignorance,” he added Read more: World War I: Europe and the politics of remembrance

Macron stressed the dangers of nationalism in his speech

Far-flung conflict

The Paris commemorations were preceded by ceremonies in New Zealand, Australia, India, Hong Kong and Myanmar, former British colonies that lost tens of thousands of people sent to fight in the war.

Although Sunday’s ceremonies celebrate an act that brought a short-lived peace to the world, they are taking place at a time of growing nationalism and international tensions.

US President Donald Trump, one of the leaders attending the event, is seen by many as undermining the Western alliance and world bodies such as the UN with his self-declared nationalism. Trump will not be present at the Paris Peace Forum scheduled to take place after a memorial service on the Champs-Elysees. The conference was conceived by Macron and aims to highlight the importance of international institutions for global peace and prosperity.

The Forum is to be opened with a speech given by German Chancellor Angela Merkel alongside UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Trump, with his wife Melania, sat next to Merkel during the ceremony

Some of those who participated in Sunday’s commemorations had relatives who fought in what is often known as the “Great War,” and had come a long way to be in Paris, as DW’s Bernd Riegert reported.

Some protest

Other attendees of the memorial service and Forum included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump and Putin greeted each other and shook hands at the ceremony, Russian television showed. The gesture comes as relations between their two countries remain strained, among other things because of alleged Russian interference in recent US elections.

The US president pointedly did not extend his hand to Trudeau. Earlier this year, Trump described the Canadian premier as “dishonest and weak” amid a dispute over what he alleges are Canada’s “unfair” trade practices.

As Trump’s motorcade made its way up the Champs-Elysees, it was temporarily halted after two topless protesters approached it wearing slogans on their bodies. Police quickly overpowered the protesters, whom the feminist group Femen claimed as its own.

British commemorations

In Britain, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier laid a wreath at a commemoration ceremony held at the Cenotaph war memorial in central London. He arrived with Prince Charles, who laid the first wreath on behalf of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who watched on from a nearby balcony.

Steinmeier was the first German leader to join the annual remembrance ceremony in Britain​

Ahead of the ceremony, the British government said Steinmeier’s wreath was laid “in a historic act of reconciliation.”

Other smaller ceremonies were held in other places across Britain, including Cardiff, Belfast and Glasgow.

tj/rc (AFP, AP)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW’s editors send out a selection of the day’s hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.

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