Turkey marks National Sovereignty and Children’s Day

Senior politicians, including Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman, Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

“Our aim is to preserve our people’s independence, state’s sovereignty and move beyond level of contemporary civilization,” Kahraman wrote in the mausoleum’s memorial book.

"Our independence struggle, which was conducted under the leadership of Gazi Mustafa Kemal, reached its goal with the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the liberation of our country and the declaration of the republic,” Prime Minister Davutoğlu said in a statement.

The prime minister later received a group of children at Çankaya Palace, where they followed the annual tradition of taking the seats of Cabinet ministers.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also welcomed children to the presidental palace. 

"The most important national holiday was consigned to you," Erdoğan told children.

The April 23 celebrations focus on children after Atatürk, the first speaker of the parliament, dedicated the day to children as the nation’s future.

The Grand National Assembly met for the first time in Ankara in 1920 during the War of Independence to lay the foundations for an independent, secular and modern republic.