Turkey celebrated the 101st anniversary of the birth of the Turkish Republic on 29 October with nationwide tributes to its first President and hero of the Turkish War of Independence, Mustafa Kemal ‘Atatürk’.
In Istanbul, the main celebrations took place on Vatan Street, where a military parade was attended by numerous authorities, while in the Aegean city of Izmir the main stage was Republic Square, where the national day celebrations included poetry recitations and folk dancing.
In Erzurum, in Turkey’s far east, students from Atatürk University climbed the 3,176-metre-high Palandöken Mountain before observing a minute’s silence at the summit, where they unfurled an image of Atatürk and the Turkish flag.
In İskenderun, in the Mediterranean province of Hatay, the patrol ship TCG Tarsus opened its doors to the public on the occasion of Republic Day, while in Antalya, also on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, a military parade was held and attended by a large crowd.
One of the most original celebrations took place in Şanlıurfa in south-eastern Turkey, where divers unfurled a Turkish flag underwater at a local dam, while on land a group of people marched carrying a Turkish flag to the famous archaeological site of Göbeklitepe.
As usual, the official celebrations were concentrated in the Turkish capital, Ankara, and especially at the Anıtkabir mausoleum, where Atatürk’s remains lie and where thousands of people came to pay tribute to him, as well as the country’s main authorities, on today’s festive day.
It was on 29 October 1923 when, following the defeat and occupation of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, and with the new status acquired by the Turkish nation after the victory in the Turkish War of Independence and the Treaty of Lausanne, the newly constituted Turkish parliament proclaimed the new Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti) and Kemal ‘Atatürk’ (‘Father of the Turks’) as its first President.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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