Every special day fills our hearts with joy. Birthdays, graduations, celebrations, New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and many others that we can’t even count. But amongst all of them, there is October 29 for our Turks. It’s the day we met with the republic, with our freedom, with our hope, and of course with our future.
A hundred years ago, our great leader Mustafa Kemal went to Samsun in May, starting our great resistance against the enemies and giving the first signals that we would be a big, modern, and, independent country. The sense of unity and togetherness among our people, our soldiers had provided them strength that we have never seen. That day was the start of everything, after six months we survived the war.
After all that war and fighting, our Turkish people deserved peace and freedom. Mustafa Kemal came to Ankara, our capital. He convened the parliament. Discussions were made, laws were announced and decisions were given. Everyone was thinking the same thing; the republication of Türkiye.
On that special day, October 29th, the republication was announced to the country by 101 cannon shots. Our people were celebrating it all day, all night, and even the day after. There were festivals and celebrations all over the country but more importantly, there was joy, happiness, and peace in our people’s eyes. Our ancestors had been independent that day. We had been independent that day. That day, those celebrations, those joys had been written down in the history books.
From that day, we celebrate October 29th every year, with the same joy in our hearts, and with the same thankfulness to our brave people and our great leader Mustafa Kemal. The faith of our Turkish people that made Türkiye stand on its own feet brings us to these days and we feel exactly the same joy and excitement every time no matter how much time has passed.