History lecturer accuses the Australian War Memorial of LYING about the Anzac spirit after branding brave diggers who fought at Gallipoli as 'killers'
- A lecturer has been caught telling students that Anzac soldiers were 'killers'
- Dr Dean Aszkielowicz also said Anzac day services were 'cliche' in a lecture
- Murdoch University issued a statement defending him and 'academic freedom'
- Now he has been caught saying that ideas about Anzac spirit are all a lie
- More than 8,000 Australians died during the Gallipoli campaign in WWI
Controversial lecturer: Dr Dean Aszkielowicz
A university lecturer who called Anzac heroes 'murderers' also said the Australian War Memorial website is full of lies.
Dr Dean Aszkielowicz told students of Murdoch University in Perth that considering Australia's war dead as murderers is a valid viewpoint.
In the same history lecture on 12 March he said Anzac soldiers did not fight for an Australian way of life and that no-one can pinpoint what an Australian way of life is.
'Very few things that the Australian War Memorial claims on its website about Anzac Day are true,' he said in a recording of the lecture heard by The Australian.
'The war was not fought for our way of life, nor could anyone at the time have articulated what our way of life was or what it is now.
'If I asked you what the Australian way of life is, you probably couldn't answer me, you'd probably give me some foggy ideas, probably something to do with mateship I suppose.'
The controversial lecturer was referring to a section of the Australian War Memorial website on 'Anzac spirit.'
It reads: 'There is general consensus on what is regarded as the 'Anzac spirit'. Anzac came to stand for the positive qualities which Australians have seen their forces show in war.
'These qualities are generally accepted to include endurance, courage, ingenuity, good humour, and mateship.'
Australian officers of the 21st Battalion with their washing in a trench at Lone Pine on the Gallipoli Peninsula three days before the evacuation
Wounded soldiers are evacuated from Anzac Cove on barges after the disastrous campaign
More than 10,000 Australians and New Zealanders watch the ANZAC Centenary Dawn Service at the ANZAC Commemorative Site at ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli, Saturday, April 25, 2015
The director of the war memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson, slammed the lecturer's comments.
He said in a statement: 'These comments on Gallipoli and Anzac Day are offensive in the extreme.
'These young Australian volunteers, including Aboriginal Australians, gave their all and - in the case of 8,700 - their lives for our then young nation.
'They respected the Turks and the Turks respected them. They also forged in bloody sacrifice a bond within which Australia and New Zealand live today.'
A single poppy is seen at the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial after the ANZAC Day dawn service in Canberra, Saturday, April 25, 2015
Dr Dean Aszkielowicz told students of Murdoch University in Perth that considering Australia's war dead as murderers is a valid viewpoint. Pictured: Australians visit the grave of John Simpson at Beach Cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsula
A woman visits Ariburnu Anzac cemetery at Anzac cove after a dawn service in Canakkale on April 25, 2018
Moving: People attend an Anzac Day dawn service in Canakkale on April 25, 2018
On Wednesday it was revealed the lecturer told students that Anzac Day commemorations were a 'cliché'.
When asked by one student if Anzacs who fought during the First World War should be viewed as murderers, Dr Aszkielowicz said that he didn't see why 'that isn't a viewpoint that shouldn't sit alongside this other version of how we look at the Anzacs'.
'If you go and you kill people, whether it's in a foreign campaign or not, then you've killed people and you're a killer,' he said.
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More than 8,000 Australian soldiers died during the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, which ran from February 1915 to January 1916.
Many Australians and New Zealanders view the campaign as the moment the young nations lost their innocence and became proudly independent.
The university defended the lecturer's comments, saying: 'This is academic freedom in action.'
The interim pro-vice-chancellor of the College of Arts, Business, Law and Social Sciences, Professor Rikki Kersten, said that staff actively encourage students to draw from arguments that range across the political spectrum.
British Army soldiers resting in the shore area at Suvla Bay, Turkey in 1915 with various types of ships pictured anchored in the bay in the background. Australians belonging to the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train constructed piers and harbours in the bay
Murdoch University in Perth where the controversial history lecturer made his comments
'They might not agree with all the viewpoints they hear or read, but it is important they understand them and have the tools to form their own views.
'In the context of these lectures, our academics provided informed but challenging comment respectfully — this is academic freedom in action.'
She said the university wanted to produce 'critical thinkers who willingly consume a variety of perspectives and have the tools to question them in order to come to their own conclusions'.
'This is a valuable skill set that will serve them well in their future careers,' she said.
It comes after students at the same university were told that both the federal government and 'right-wing media' were misinforming the public about refugees on Manus Island and Nauru.
Anne Surma, an English and Creative Arts lecturer, urged her students to read a book by Manus Island asylum seeker Behrouz Boochani, who she described as 'prisoners'.
The University issued a statement that said it was important for all viewpoints to be taught to students – as well as the tools to allow them to form their own opinions.
GALLIPOLI - A DEFINING MOMENT IN AUSTRALIAN HISTORY
The background to the Gallipoli landings was one of deadlock on the Western Front in 1915, when the British hoped to capture Constantinople.
The Russians were under threat from the Turks in the Caucasus and needed help, so the British decided to bombard and try to capture Gallipoli.
Located on the western coast of the Dardanelles, the British hoped by eventually getting to Constantinople that they would link up with the Russians.
The intention of this was to then knock Turkey out of the war. A naval attack began on February 19 but it was called off after three battleships were sunk.
Then by the time of another landing on April 25, the Turks had been given time to prepare better fortifications and increased their armies sixfold.
Australian and New Zealand troops won a bridgehead at Anzac Cove as the British aimed to land at five points in Cape Helles - but only managed three.
The British still required reinforcements in these areas and the Turkish were able to bring extra troops onto the peninsula to better defend themselves.
A standstill continued through the summer in hot and filthy conditions, and the campaign was eventually ended by the War Council in winter 1915.
The invasion had been intended to knock Turkey out of the war, but in the end it only gave the Russians some breathing space from the Turks.
Turkey lost around 300,000 men and the Allies had 214,000 killed - more than 8,000 of whom were Australian soldiers, in a disastrous campaign.
Anzac Cove became a focus for Australian pride after forces were stuck there in squalid conditions for eight months, defending the area from the Turks.
The Anzac soldiers who arrived on the narrow strip of beach were faced with a difficult environment of steep cliffs and ridges - and almost daily shelling.
Despite the toll on human life, the campaign is seen as a landmark in the formation of national consciousness in Australia and New Zealand countries.
The 25th of April was officially named Anzac Day in 1916.
Every year tens of thousands of people across the world attend dawn services in remembrance.
They stand motionless in the dark to remember their fallen countrymen and women as they mark the anniversary of the landing.
