Turkey will mark National Sovereignty and Children’s Day on April 23, marking the 100th anniversary of the foundation of parliament.
Official ceremonies will be held in the current parliament, the first parliament building, and Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will not attend the gatherings due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Ahead of the special session of parliament, Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop, top government officials and politicians will attend a ceremony held at Anıtkabir. The special session will begin with Şentop’s inaugural speech.
In the special session, leading lawmakers from all the political parties represented in parliament will address the General Assembly.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu will also attend at the assembly.
The April 23 celebrations focus on children after Atatürk, the first speaker of parliament, dedicated the day to children, seeing them as the nation’s future.
The Grand National Assembly or parliament met for the first time in 1920 in Ankara, the city that would later become the capital city of the republic, during the War of Independence to lay the foundations for an independent, secular and modern republic.
Although Sovereignty Day is being marked for the 98th time this year, it was 1979 when the day started to be called “International Children’s Year” and the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Institution (TRT) started a festival called “TRT International April 23 Children’s Festival.”
In its first year, Turkey hosted children from the Soviet Union, Iraq, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria, and went on to host thousands of children from 150 different countries over 39 years.
