ANKARA - April 23rd, Turkey`s National Sovereignty and Children`s Day, is being celebrated with a series of events and ceremonies in Turkey.
The first ceremony was held at the Turkish parliament early on Wednesday.
Turkey`s Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, accompanied by several ministers, MPs and bureaucrats, laid a wreath to the monument of Ataturk at the parliament and observed a minute of silence.
Afterwards, Toptan, accompanied by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leaders of the opposition parties, members of the Council of Ministers and MPs, paid a visit to Anitkabir, the Mausoleum of Ataturk.
During the ceremony at Anitkabir, visitors laid a wreath to Ataturk`s tomb and observed a minute of silence. Toptan signed the special register of Anitkabir as well.
-APRIL 23RD, NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND CHILDREN`S DAY-
It was on April 23rd, 1920, during the War of Independence, that the Grand National Assembly met in Ankara and laid down the foundations of a new, independent, secular, and modern republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Following the defeat of the Allied invasion forces on September 9th, 1922 and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24th, 1923, Ataturk started his task of establishing the institutions of the new state. Over the next eight years, Ataturk and his followers adopted sweeping reforms to create a modern Turkey, divorced from her Ottoman past.
The founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, dedicated April 23rd to the children of the country to emphasize that they are the future of the new nation. Every year on April 23rd, the children in Turkey celebrate this ``Sovereignty and Children`s Day`` as a national holiday.
(DO-MS)