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Atatürk's Address To The Youth of Turkey (Turkish: Atatürk'ün Türk Gençliğine Hitabesi) is a famous speech by the Republic of Turkey's first president, founding father, and national hero, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, spoken as the concluding statements to his 36-hour 20 October 1927 address to the Parliament, wherein he laid out, in a sweeping and thoroughly-detailed retrospective, the history and intellectual foundations of the Turkish War of Independence and the fight for modernity, liberty and democracy that fueled the Turkish Revolution, and ultimately led to the October 29, 1923 establishment of the Republic of Turkey.
Background (Calligraphy): حاكميت ملتكدر Hakimiyet Milletindir means "Sovereignty Belongs to the Nation”
The speech is a direct address to the present and future younger generations of the country, and functions as a call to vigilance in the face of difficulties that may face the nation, as well as a reminder of the civic and patriotic duty of each citizen to protect their freedoms in the face of internal and external adversaries.
A framed version of the speech typically occupies the wall above the blackboard in the classrooms of Turkish schools, accompanied by a Turkish flag, a photograph of the country's founding father Atatürk, and a copy of the national anthem.
Atatürk's Address To Turkish Youth edit
Turkish Youth!
Your first duty is to forever conserve and defend Turkish independence and the Turkish Republic.
It is the only and very intrinsic of your presence and oncoming. This intrinsic is your most meritorious treasure. Even in the future, there will be malignant people at home and abroad who will hope to divest you from this treasure. One day, if you are in the situation of the inevitability of guarding the independence and republic; you won't examine the facilities and circumstances of your status to fulfil your assignment. The facilities and circumstances may manifest themselves in a very unfavourable essence. The enemies which will purpose to conspire against your independence and your republic might be the representatives of an unprecedented victory within the whole world. By using force and trickery; all the citadels in your beloved homeland may have been captured, all the dockyards may have been occupied, all the armies may have been dispersed, and every corner of the homeland may have been de facto invaded. Even more severe and horrible than all these circumstances, those who have the power within the homeland may have been behaved with heedlessness and heresy, and even with treachery. These rulers may even have combined their personal benefits with the political goals of the invaders. The nation may have become perished and exhausted with poorness necessities.
O child of the Turkish future! Even in these situations and circumstances, your assignment is to recover the Turkish independence and republic. The power you need is in the sublime blood inside your veins.[1]
Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 27 October 1927.