ANKARA - Turkey`s parliament speaker said on Wednesday that the Turkish parliament, which succeeded in giving the nation its independence in the past, could solve all the problems today as well.
A ceremony was held on the occasion of April 23rd, Turkey`s National Sovereignty and Children`s Day, at the first parliament building in capital Ankara.
Speaking at the ceremony, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said, "our parliament, which has given shape to our nation`s destiny since the day of its establishment, continues to be the address of solution".
"For a powerful Turkey, we should have a more powerful national will, that is, the parliament," he also said.
State ministers Cemil Cicek and Hayati Yazici, Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit and force commanders, opposition leaders and MPs attended the ceremony at the first parliament building.
Meanwhile, hundreds of children and citizens are flowing to Ataturk`s Mausoleum, Anitkabir, to celebrate National Sovereignty and Children`s Day.
-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)