Children of the Republic

We were lucky; we grew up in the Turkey of the Republic. We felt free and safe. The honor of being Atatürk’s children stirred our hearts.

The teachers of the Republic were our guides. We grew up with a love for our homeland and a passion for service.

I started primary school in Erzurum. Our classroom was crowded. We would sit three or four to a desk, hang our erasers around our necks with a string after punching a hole in the middle, and use our pencils until they were too small to hold. Our notebooks were made of straw paper, and our arithmetic tools were dried beans and matchsticks kept in bags sewn by our mothers.

We wore our aprons until they were too small, and we used our school bags until they were worn out and falling apart.

The Republic taught us not to waste, and not to distinguish between the rich and the poor.

During 'Domestic Goods Weeks,' we would engrave into our minds and souls the value of the fruits, produce, and minerals extracted from our homeland, and we would proudly wear the paper badges with the Red Crescent emblem that were pinned to our lapels in exchange for the pocket money we dropped into Red Crescent collection boxes.

In our classrooms, we took on responsibilities in clubs like the Red Crescent Club, the Cleanliness Club, and the Library Club, and we wore armbands on the sleeves of our aprons with the name of the club written on them.

Many of our schools were heated by a stove set up in the middle of the classroom. What a joy it was to sit close to the stove as students whose very eyelashes would freeze during the winter months.

The teacher was someone to be taken as an example by all students and their families. Teachers who could blend authority with love left a lifelong mark on young hearts.

Schools were not managed by "principals," but by HEAD TEACHERS. They did not sit in their offices and look down on students. They knew the students, looked after their needs, and honored them.

Years later, I found a photograph gifted to me by the Head Teacher of the Erzurum Culture Institution Primary School. He had taken the photo with our class on May 28, 1956, and had written on the back:

“To Nur Aytekin, a memento of the Culture Institution Primary School where she studied in Erzurum. How happy it would make me if she remembers us.”

I read these lines with tears in my eyes. I remember this valuable Head Teacher with respect. This is what it meant to be a Head Teacher of the Republic!

Luxury consumption, discriminating against people, and showing off were considered shameful.

When we came to Ankara, I had started the third grade. My father had brought me a notebook from a trip abroad. The pages of the notebook were whiter than anything I had seen until then. The cover was colorful, patterned, and shiny. I was mesmerized. I immediately put the notebook in my school bag. However, I could never take it out of that bag. Because my friends did not have such a notebook. That notebook, which I could not bring myself to write in, grew old with me in secret for years as my most precious school supply.

In secondary education, Scouting, and in primary schools, being a 'Cub Scout' was a very important status. Being part of the “National Games” team, which is now called Folklore, was a privilege. Public Houses (Halk Evleri) were the primary venues for school year-end performances.

Our National Holidays were the days we awaited with the greatest excitement. On October 29th, schools would participate in parades on the streets; on May 19th, we would participate in sports events in stadiums wearing our white shorts; and on April 23rd, we would celebrate our holiday by reciting poems and performing National Games, consciously upholding the legacy of our Great Leader.

Even though our roads were muddy, our schools had stoves, our aprons were worn, our notebooks were made of straw paper, and our pencils were tiny, we were honorable and wealthy.

In those years, we never forgot the responsibility of being Atatürk’s Children with the 'Student Oath' we recited every morning at the top of our lungs.

On the 103rd anniversary of our Republic, our devotion to Atatürk and our passion for the Republic will once again flow like a flood in the streets.

Because for us, the Republic is far more than just a form of government. The Republic is synonymous with upholding the enlightenment revolution, the secular democratic republican regime, the nation-state, and the unitary structure.

The Republic is our Ancestor's legacy to the Turkish Youth and his greatest work.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the Teachers of the Republic, who laid the foundation for the determination to keep the Republic alive by upholding all its principles and values, and to Atatürk’s Children who walk in their footsteps.

Those who attack our founding values, those who race to throw the Republic into the dustbin of history, and those who think that by declaring a second century they can shift Turkey's axis, are doomed to be defeated in the face of this Nation's perseverance and determination.

Come on, my Turkey, let us flow like a flood again and celebrate the 103rd anniversary of our Republic with enthusiasm.

Our Atatürk is calling to us from Anıtkabir!

How happy is the one who says I am a Turk, and here is to many more years....