site.btaTurkiye Celebrates National Sovereignty and Children's Day on April 23

April 23 is a significant date in Turkiye's modern history, as on this date in 1920 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye was founded in Ankara. A year later, a decree in the Turkish state gazette declared April 23 as an official holiday – National Sovereignty and Children's Day, when the Turkish people pay respect to Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, with various events.

The establishment of the Turkish Parliament was one of the most important milestones on the road to the realization of Ataturk's ideas for the creation of a new, independent, secular, Western-oriented Republic of Turkiye on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

Remarkably, Ataturk inaugurated the parliament during the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923) that followed the occupation of the Ottoman Empire post-World War I.

As part of the official programme on Wednesday morning, a delegation led by the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly, Numan Kurtulmus, laid a wreath at the Anitkabir mausoleum complex, the resting place of Ataturk in Ankara, the Turkish news channel TRT Haber reported.

Thousands laid wreaths at the monument to Ataturk and his comrades in Istanbul's central Taksim Square. Festivals, concerts and dance events took place in Mersin, Bursa, and Eskisehir.