World War I key moments
World leaders gathered in Paris to lead global commemorations yesterday to mark 100 years since the end of World War I at a time of growing nationalism and diplomatic tensions.
About 70 leaders, including US and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, marked the centenary of the 1918 Armistice in the French capital yesterday.
Ceremonies in New Zealand, Australia, India, Hong Kong and Myanmar marked the start of the memorial events worldwide for a conflict that involved millions of troops from colonised countries in Asia and Africa.
The leaders of Commonwealth nations, whose forces were deployed under British command 100 years ago, also sounded a message of peace and hope for the world in the new century.
“This was a war in which India was not directly involved, yet our soldiers fought world over, just for the cause of peace,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter yesterday.
“For our tomorrows, they gave their today,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told people gathered at the Remembrance Day national ceremony in Canberra.
The Paris commemorations, centred on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe, featured warnings about the modern-day danger of nationalism.
“This day is not just about remembering, but should be about a call to action,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday after visiting the forest clearing in northeastern France where the Armistice was signed.
Merkel gave the opening address, alongside UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a conference called the Paris Peace Forum, which took place after a memorial service on the Champs-Elysees yesterday morning.
Conceived by French President Emmanuel Macron, the Forum is intended to highlight the importance of international institutions in helping resolve conflicts, avert wars and spread prosperity.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth attended a separate event in London.
Despite the show of unity at the Arc de Triomphe, where school children read out messages written by soldiers in eight languages, tensions lurked beneath the surface.
Trump, whose hardline nationalism has badly shaken the Western alliance, arrived in Paris on Friday, criticising host Macron for being “insulting.”
Trump took umbrage at a recent interview in which Macron talked about the need for a European army and listed the US along with Russia and China as a threat to national security.
The “America First” leader, who faced criticism on Saturday for cancelling a trip to an American cemetery because of the rainy weather, snubbed the Paris Peace Forum.
Other attendees of the memorial service and Forum included Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Canadian premier Justin Trudeau, Israel’s Netanyahu and Putin.
With far-right nationalist politicians coming to power from Brazil to Italy to Austria, 40-yearold centrist Macron is set to invoke the war to make the case for international cooperation. –AFP
War I was sparked by the assassination of a prince in Sarajevo 1914 and ended with an armistice signed in a French forest in 1918.
Here are some key moments in the conflict, which claimed the lives of about 10 million soldiers, brought down three empires and sowed the seeds of the communist revolution in Russia and World War II.
On June 28, 1914 the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie are visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia.
Bosnia is at the time a province of the empire, a situation resented by some Bosnians and neighbouring Serbia.
As the couple move through the city in a motorcade, nationalist Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip opens fire and both are killed.
Austria-Hungary accuses Serbia of being responsible, setting off a chain of events that will in weeks lead the European powers into war, sucked in by a web of military alliances.
Austria declares war on Serbia on July 28, 1914 and attacks Belgrade.
Two days later, Serbia’s ally and protector, Russia, orders a general mobilisation of its army to intimidate Austria.
On August 1, Germany, ally of Austria, orders the same. France, allied with Russia, immediately follows.
Germany declares war on Russia the same day. On August 3, it declares war on France and its troops invade Belgium.
The next day, Britain – allied with France and Russia – declares war on Germany for violating the neutrality of Belgium.
By early September 1914 German troops have advanced to just tens of kilometres outside Paris. The French government retreats southwest, to Bordeaux.
On September 6, French and British troops launch a desperate counter attack along the Marne River, northeast of the capital. – AFP