The writing is neat, precise, immaculate - lines of ink put to paper 73 years ago marking a major event in the history of Turkey.
Graham Wright was a young midshipman with the Royal Australian Navy when he wrote in his journal about attending the funeral of Turkish hero Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Turkey in 1938.
Wright, now 91 and living in Yarralumla, had his journal on hand yesterday when he attended a ceremony at the Ataturk Memorial on Anzac Parade to mark the 73rd anniversary of Ataturk's death on November 10, 1938.
School children from Sydney who attended the ceremony were fascinated by the journal as people jostled to have their photograph taken with Mr Wright, a living link to their nation's past.
The ceremony came ahead of Remembrance Day today, with sounds of the rehearsal for the event at the Australian War Memorial drifting across to the park named in Ataturk's honour.
Ataturk was at Gallipoli in 1915 as commander of the 19th Division, the main reserve of the Turkish Fifth Army. But it was his later life as president of the first republic of Turkey opening the nation to the modern world that led to an international contingent being present at his funeral to honour a friend, not foe.
An Australian officer on a British ship, the HMS Malaya, Mr Wright attended the state funeral in the Turkish capital of Ankara on November 21, 1938, when Ataturk's body was taken to the Ethnography Museum of Ankara.
His words reflect that the allied forces were there not as antagonists but as supporters, the entry in his journal reading:
''As the coffin, carried on a gun carriage drawn by Turkish soldiers, passed, we rested on arms reversed, an action I'm sure endeared us to the hearts of all present.
''Other factors, too, contributed to the outstanding success of this British venture. [Commander of the Australian troops in World War I] Field Marshal Lord Birdwood, who through illness was unable to march, was present on the balcony facing the museum and the paying of his last tribute to a former foe was greatly appreciated by the Turkish people.
''A small action such as the British Government is making at this time may have far-reaching effects in the future in promoting Anglo-Turkish relationships.''
Turkish ambassador to Australia Oguz Ozge said Ataturk was '' a radical reformer'', creating a republic that was multicultural, multilingual and multi-religious, building an education system based on ''scientific and secular principles'' and turning ''faith into an affair of the human conscience'' rather than politics.
Turkish students Tamay Kumbas, 29, and Gozde Akgul, 27, are studying for their masters of education degrees in Sydney.
At the ceremony, Ms Kumbas read out Ataturk's message to young people and Ms Akgul read out a response from young people to him.
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