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Türkiye was adorned with flags and posters of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as it marked Republic Day and the country’s 102nd year as a republic on Wednesday.
At the heart of celebrations and remembrance were Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Atatürk, founder and first president of the republic. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the longest-serving leader since Atatürk, joined statespeople and his political rivals in a rare display of unity for the anniversary.
Writing in the memorial book of Anıtkabir, Erdoğan said they remembered and revered Atatürk, his brothers-in-arms who fought in the War of Independence, and the martyrs who died in the war that preceded the declaration of the republic.
“We are fully determined to elevate the Republic of Türkiye, founded 102 years ago with the sacrifice of many sons and daughters of the homeland, to ‘above the level of contemporary civilizations’ as you guided us,” Erdoğan wrote, in reference to the famous quote of Atatürk.
“We raise our country’s global reputation, and our mobilization for investments and development within Türkiye continues uninterruptedly. Although the front against me and our government expands as we are approaching our goals, we will not abandon this path, and with the support of our revered nation and Allah’s blessing, we will leave a big, strong Türkiye as a legacy to the future generations,” Erdoğan also wrote.
Erdoğan later hosted a reception at the Presidential Complex, accepting senior officials and representatives of foreign missions extending their Republic Day greetings. On Wednesday evening, he was scheduled to host another event at the Presidential Complex on the occasion.
The republic, which replaced the collapsed Ottoman Empire, was declared a few months after an international treaty recognized the independence of the new state, and the declaration of Ankara as its capital was made. Atatürk, a veteran Ottoman officer who launched the struggle for freedom when he secretly traveled to the northern province of Samsun in 1919, was the de facto leader of the new state. In the book “Nutuk” (“The Speech”), which compiled Atatürk’s speeches between 1919 and 1923, the leader recounts the declaration of the republic as something that happened during a dinner with leading figures of the War of Independence.
“During the dinner (on Oct. 28, 1923), I told them we would declare the republic tomorrow. All my colleagues agreed with me, and we took a break from the dinner to discuss what to do next. I never felt the need to discuss the plan to declare the republic because I never doubted that they thought differently from me,” he was quoted as saying.
Atatürk, along with Ismet Inönü, who succeeded Atatürk as president, drafted a bill changing the 1921 Constitution, in which an amendment changed the State of Türkiye to the Republic of Türkiye. It was approved by Parliament the next day. Atatürk was officially declared the first president at the same session of Parliament, amid chants of “Long live the Republic!” by lawmakers and thunderous applause. Atatürk famously concluded his speech after the election as the first president of the republic with the remarks, “The Republic of Türkiye will always be blissful, victorious and successful.” National celebrations ensued after the declaration, but the first large-scale celebrations were on Oct. 29, 1924. In 1925, Parliament approved a proposal to declare the day 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 Democrat 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
