This weekend Youth and Sports Day will take place to commemorate Turkey’s significant step towards claiming their independence a century ago.
This yearly anniversary is to celebrate the landmark in history which saw Military leader Mustafa Kemal sail from Istanbul to Samsun on the Black Sea with rallying forces to stop the Greek invasion.
Turkey’s ultimate victory happened three years later in Izmir, but the stand made at Samsun is still seen to this day as the seminal moment and is the event that later made Mustafa Kemal become Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic.
It was back in 1938 that Youth and Sports Day was declared a public holiday. Many sports and gymnastic activities will be held at the event.
Other events have been taking place around Turkey this week. In Gocek 270 young sailors have been taking part in a sailing regatta and people have set sail from Istanbul recreating Ataturks voyage to Samsun.
A remembrance ceremony is being held on Sunday at Anitkabir, Ataturk’s mausoleum in Ankara. There will be a military parade happening which will be led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
