Celebrating 100 Years of the Turkish Republic

Last Sunday, the 29th of October, was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic

The 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic passed last Sunday, October 29th. I spent much of the weekend riding my bike around downtown Turkey, and I enjoyed the banners that I found.

Here’s Republic Square in downtown Izmir draped in Turkish flags. Note that there are flags hanging from most of the apartments overlooking the square. If you look closely, you can see the mounted statue of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk just above the white van in the shadows (28 October 2023, my photo).

One trait about Turks that I admire is their love of nation and flag. As an American I love patriotism and flags, and they wave them as proudly here as at home.

In the bay outside the square, there were fireworks that evening.

Fireworks from Republic Square, Pasaport - Izmir, looking over the shoulder of the Atatürk statue. (Photo from @izmirgibiyiz on X).

In other areas, the celebrations were more elaborate. The seaside city of Aliağa had a tremendous display of drones.

Drone display Aliağa, Turkey. 29 October 2023 (Photos from @izmirgibiyiz on X).

On October 29, 1923, Atatürk opened Turkey’s Grand National Assembly in Ankara. In a speech to the assembly, he declared that the nation was a republic. It was a formality. The Greeks had been expelled from Anatolia a year earlier, and the Sultan had fled into exile at the end of 1922.

I also rode by Liberation Square (my name for Cumhuriyet Ağacı Heykeli), which celebrates the liberation of Izmir in 1922 near the end of the Greco-Turk War.

The calvarymen in the statue don’t usually carry flags, but they did on the 100th Anniversary of the Republic. The liberarion of Smyrna (as it was known then) led directly to the end of the Sultanate and the founding of the Republic.

The scene on Sunday was so cool. I ride about ten miles along the bay from my home to church and back every week, and all along the Kordon (the 45km park that traces the shoreline of the Gulf of Izmir) Turks were decked out in red and white, many shirts bearing the logo of the 100th Anniversary.

The caption reads, “100th Year of the Republic of Turkey.”

I was impressed at the design of the logo and the way the artist blended the crescent-star symbol of the republic with the symbol of infinity. That is boldness! Especially in a country where you can see the ruins of a dozen earlier empires.