Turkiye marks centenary as modern republic

Erdogan pays tribute to Ataturk; reassures nation country ‘is in safe hands’

ISTANBUL:

Turkiye marked its centenary as a post-Ottoman republic on Sunday with day-long events that both honoured the secular republic’s founder and play up the achievement of the Islamic-rooted party at the helm of the country since 2002.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was front and centre of the somewhat muted celebrations held in the shadow of Israel’s escalating war against Hamas in Gaza. The main highlight of the day was the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ministers visiting the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

“Our country is in safe hands, you may rest in peace,” Erdogan said after laying a wreath at Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey and a military commander whose legacy the current president had vied with during his two-decade rule.

"We have tried to protect your legacy properly during our 21-year period of administration," he wrote in the Anitkabir guestbook. “We are determined to crown the second century of our Republic with the Century of Turkiye.”

Earlier, congratulating the Turkiye citizens on the October 29 Republic Day on X, Erdogan spoke of the excitement and pride on the 100th anniversary of the Republic.” In a separate message, he said his government was working to make the country ready for the challenges of the coming century.

Ataturk is lionised across Turkish society for driving out invading forces and building a brand new nation out of the fallen Ottoman Empire’s ruins in the wake of World War I. Turkiye was formed as a Westward-facing nation that forged a modern new identity out of its myriad ethnic groups.

It eventually became a proud member of the US-led NATO defence alliance and a beacon of democratic hopes in the Middle East. But Ataturk’s social and geopolitical transformation of the overwhelmingly Muslim nation created divisions that weigh on Turkish politics to this day.

Erdogan tapped into these as he led his conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power over the leftist Republican People’s Party (CHP) formed by Ataturk. He has spent much of the past decade testing the limits of Turkiye’s secular traditions as well as its ties with the West.

Sunday’s celebrations have been partially eclipsed by Erdogan’s increasingly fierce attacks against Israel over its response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. Turkish state television has also scrapped the broadcast of concerts and other festivities because of the “alarming human tragedy in Gaza”.