April 23: The Birth of the Turkish Republic

The foundation of the Republic of Turkey was laid on April 23, 1920 with the inauguration of the  Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) in Ankara. It was the first step for the birth of a new state in Anatolia whose roots lay in the national war of liberation led by Mustafa Kemal, later to be given the name Ataturk – father of Turks. The Turkish national liberation struggle began on May 19, 1919 and culminated in the liberation of Anatolia, the international recognition of modern Turkey’s borders by the Treaty of Lausanne, and the founding of the Republic of Turkey the same year on October 29, 1923.

The TGNA held its first session at a time when almost every corner of the Ottoman Empire was under the occupation of the Allied powers. The Ottoman Parliament had been shut down and the government was cut off from the rest of the country and in denial that its very existence was in grave danger. Exasperated by the Ottoman government’s inaction, patriotic movements began springing up all around Anatolia. The occupation of Izmir by invading Greek armies and the atrocities they committed against the Turkish population was the final outrage that lay the seeds for a nationwide liberation movement. This struggle soon turned into a war of independence when Mustafa Kemal, a young Ottoman officer at the time, took the lead in organizing the fragmented national struggle. Mustafa Kemal was known and well respected by his fellow countrymen for his success in Gallipoli.
 
An important political dimension of the opening of the TGNA was that it followed the Allied occupation of Istanbul, and the dissolving of the Ottoman Parliament. Mustafa Kemal’s justification for opening this new legislative body was created. The Ottoman government was under occupation, rendered helpless to save the country. The first Turkish Grand National Assembly consisted of 115 elected representatives from different Ottoman provinces. This number quickly reached 350 as many deputies from the dissolved Ottoman parliament came to Ankara and joined it.
 
With the opening of the Assembly, Ankara became the center of the national struggle for independence. Not surprisingly, it was declared as the capital of the new Turkish Republic on October 13, 1923.  On the opening day of the Assembly, Mustafa Kemal was elected as its first president. His opening speech included clues of what he envisioned this Assembly to achieve. He said that “there will not be any superior power over the assembly” which, of course meant that there would be no place for a monarch, setting the stage for the founding of the Republic of Turkey to replace the Ottoman monarchy. The Assembly, as the representative body of the Turkish people, established a national army and defeated the Allied Powers, and, under the visionary leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk re-structured the defunct Ottoman state on the basis of a secular, democratic Republic. With the establishment of the Turkish Republic, Ataturk then set forth to implement a foreign policy based on “Peace at home, peace in the world.” 

On April 23, 1929, upon Ataturk’s proposal, the National Assembly decreed April 23 as a Turkish national holiday dedicated to children to symbolize that the future of Turkey belongs to them. Thus Turkey became the first country in the world which celebrates an official Children’s Day. Today this national holiday is celebrated in Turkey with children from all over the world in the spirit of peace and harmony.