Today is a very special day in the calendar of Turkey as 29th October is Turkish Republic Day or Cumhuriyet Bayramı. The day marks the anniversary of the proclamation of the Turkish Republic when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was named as its first leader - 87 years ago today.
Atatürk's statue in Dalyan
If you know Turkey, you'll know that Atatürk's image hangs from walls in all public buildings and his statue is to be found in towns and cities throughout the country. I can't even put into words how important he is in Turkey - 'important' is an understatement. 
The Turkish flag flying in Dalyan
Turks are very proud of their flag. I challenge anyone to travel to Turkey and leave the country not knowing what the Turkish flag looks like. Today, it will be more visible than ever. We haven't been up into Fethiye centre yet but I'm willing to bet there are Turkish flags criss-crossing the main road for as far as the eye can see. We'll be walking up later so I'll take my camera. And as for Facebook; I was smiling away to myself this morning. Most of our Turkish friends' profile photos had disappeared and had been replaced with either an image of Atatürk or the Turkish flag. It certainly wasn't difficult to distinguish between Turkish and non-Turkish friends - just a bit difficult to spot which Turkish friend was which.
Cumhuriyet Bayramınız Kutlu Olsun!
6 comments:
cumhuriyet bayramımız kutlu olsun ;)
Teşekkürler, Yeşim. :)
This post just made me realize how little I know about Turkey, but glad to see there is so much national pride.
Expat in Germany - We like to see national pride too.
Happy National Day to you all! I remember my school days and learning about Ataturk and the profound change he brought to Turkey or at the time the Ottoman Empire.
Thank you, Taste of Beirut. :)
Strange how history is different, depending on where you grow up in the world isn't it? We'd never heard of Atatürk till we came to Turkey and part of my degree is in Modern History!
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