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The Republic of Türkiye was born on Oct. 29, 1923, turning a new page for the country after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. A turning point after the War of Independence, in the wake of World War I, the foundation of the republic cemented the sovereignty of this new country rising from the ashes of the empire.
Today, modern Türkiye emerges as a key international player, a force to be reckoned with in its region, and firmly adheres to the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s motto: “The sovereignty unconditionally belongs to the people.”
The idea of the republic as a new regime in Türkiye was a distant prospect in the latter days of the empire, but national sovereignty in the face of Allied invasion was always on the mind of Atatürk, a respected commander of the empire. Atatürk (then Mustafa Kemal Pasha) embarked on an ambitious journey to mobilize the nation in 1919, at a time when the British occupied the Ottoman capital, Istanbul. It would be revealed later by Mazhar Müfit Kansu, a delegate to the Erzurum Congress, one of the conventions Atatürk led on the path to independence, that Atatürk told him at the congress that the republic would be a new way of governance “after the victory.” Still, the idea of a republic was a secret close to Atatürk’s heart even then, something even his close circle was unaware of.
Before the declaration of the republic, Atatürk took another bold step, leading the establishment of the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1920, essentially forming national sovereignty independent of the occupied capital, Istanbul. Another step to full sovereignty was the Treaty of Lausanne, signed on July 24, 1923. The same year, Ankara became the center of a new government, though it still lacked a president. Atatürk was the de facto leader as the parliament speaker, but this was a position that was still not formally recognized. When efforts to form a lasting government failed, Atatürk decided to move forward with his idea. On Oct. 28, 1923, he convened his close circle, including İsmet İnönü, second president of the republic, for a fateful dinner.
Atatürk recounts the declaration of the republic as a rather impromptu decision; however, in his book Nutuk (The Speech), he says he encountered several lawmakers and his comrades-in-arms in the War of Independence as he was leaving the Parliament on Oct. 28, 1923. All were seeking to meet with Atatürk, and he decided to host a dinner at his residence in Çankaya, Atatürk writes in his book. “I told them that we would declare the republic tomorrow,” he writes. “All friends agreed with me, and we started discussing how to declare it. I never doubted that they would disagree with me. I knew they were thinking exactly what I thought,” Atatürk says in his book. On the same night, Atatürk and Ismet Inönü worked on amendments to the 1921 Constitution, including one that enshrined the republic as the form of governance for Türkiye.
On Oct. 29, all 158 members of Parliament voted in favor of Atatürk’s proposal. The vote, concluded with applause from lawmakers, was followed by a presidential vote, making Atatürk the first president of the republic.
One year later, a decree ordered celebrations for the declaration of the republic, and the first Republic Day was held in 1924. In 1925, the day was declared a national holiday.
Building upon the legacy of a semi-parliamentarian system during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, the new republic introduced a wider democracy in which Atatürk is hailed as the great statesman credited with rebuilding a devastated country with new ideals. Over the following decades, the democracy born out of the republic was disrupted by multiple coup attempts. The first one was in 1960, about a decade after the first truly multiparty elections brought the Democratic Party to power. The last one was in 2016 when the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) tried to topple the democratically elected government. Yet, at the end of the day, the republic’s core values, most notably the sovereignty of the nation, overcame the odds.
Under incumbent President Erdoğan, Türkiye announced a new set of goals under the motto “Century of Türkiye,” in reference to the republic’s centenary. Economically, the government plans to increase national income and exports, while other goals include establishing a national health care system that covers every citizen, judicial reforms, minimizing dependence on imports for defense, and pursuing an active and efficient foreign policy.
