![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/tek-dil-bayrak-vatan.jpg\" "\\"tek-dil-bayrak-vatan\\"")
<\/p>\n19 May 2011, Thursday \/ E. BARI\u015e ALTINTA\u015e , \u0130STANBUL<\/p>\n
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\u201cOne language, one flag, one motherland,\u201d reads a choreographed formation of Kuleli military cadets who performed for May 19 Youth and Sports Day ceremonies.<\/p>\n
Thursday was May 19, the anniversary of the beginning of the War of Independence, marked as the day Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk landed in Samsun in 1919, and militarism was at the forefront once again on this day, celebrated in Turkey as Atat\u00fcrk Commemoration and Youth and Sports Day.<\/p>\n
High school students, who had been practicing for days, paraded in perfect order in military formations in stadiums across Turkey and performed athletic routines. Troops also paraded, with generals attending the ceremonies in big cities alongside of politicians. Many writers believe that the images are unworthy of a democratic nation, noting that national days are celebrated in this fashion only in currently or previously communist countries that have not fully democratized such as China, Cuba or Russia. \u201cWhy are we still holding fascist-looking ceremonies on May 19?\u201d asked M\u00fcmtaz’er T\u00fcrk\u00f6ne, a columnist for the Zaman daily, in his column on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis must be the definition of dogmatism. Repeating the same thing every year without ever questioning it, without ever reflecting on its real meaning, doing the same thing every year religiously as a pair of oxen plowing the field would. Our May 19 celebrations were taken from the fascist Italy of 1932. Why aren\u2019t we even thinking of changing how we do this?\u201d<\/p>\n
He says young people putting on uncomplicated gymnastics performances on fields in stadiums was introduced in 1932, when a delegation led by Prime Minister \u0130smet \u0130n\u00f6n\u00fc visited Moscow and Rome, where they were impressed by the ways in which Mussolini\u2019s Italy and Stalin\u2019s Russia raised their youth.<\/p>\n
Journalist Mehmet Altan says that the military parades on national days are usually associated with dictatorial regimes. Since the regime of Turkey was set up by the military, which sees itself as the protector and custodian of the regime, \u201cThere is a constant glorification of the military.\u201d He points to phrases in Turkish, such as \u201cEvery Turk is born a soldier,\u201d that to<\/p>\n
He also noted that the ways national days have been celebrated haven\u2019t changed, not in the slightest, from the ways they were celebrated in the first decade of the republic. For this to change, Altan said, political parties should make an effort to change the mentality. \u201cThe regime is not democratic, but there are no efforts to transform it into a democracy because the military-politics relationship has turned into a field for profit. The General Staff cannot be brought under the supervision of the National Defense Ministry. Those who actually propose this are only doing so in return for political gains.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tansel Parlak, from the Young Civilians, a civil society group that promotes de-militarization of politics, said Turkey should start celebrating May 19 in a more civilian manner.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor this mentality to change, civil society organizations and political parties should speak up. Firstly, people who are delivering speeches in May 19 ceremonies should think of this themselves. Most probably, they attended those ceremonies as young people. Did they ever listen to politicians when they were stuffed into stadiums? Somebody should bravely make this point, although he might become the target of unjust criticism, such as accusations of not wanting to celebrate May 19 or commemorate Atat\u00fcrk at all. Turkey is one of the world\u2019s biggest economies — it is negotiating for EU membership. Celebrations done like ours can be seen in North Korea and China. Turkey should make up its mind — is it going to go on with this mentality, or will it choose to be more democratic?\u201d<\/p>\n
On May 19, 1919, Atat\u00fcrk, who would become modern Turkey\u2019s first president, landed on the main peninsula of Turkey lead the liberation effort. In early 1920, Atat\u00fcrk convened the first Turkish Grand National Assembly (Parliament) in Ankara and by 1922 all of Anatolia was freed from foreign rule. The independent Republic of Turkey was declared a year later. During the course of his term as president, Atat\u00fcrk himself proclaimed May 19 \u201cYouth and Sports Day.\u201d In the aftermath of Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s monumental legacy, the day serves to honor the country\u2019s founder as well.<\/p>\n
via Zaman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
19 May 2011, Thursday \/ E. BARI\u015e ALTINTA\u015e , \u0130STANBUL \u201cOne language, one flag, one motherland,\u201d reads a choreographed formation of Kuleli military cadets who performed for May 19 Youth and Sports Day ceremonies. Thursday was May 19, the anniversary of the beginning of the War of Independence, marked as the day Turkey’s founder Mustafa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":33998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[10659,13],"class_list":["post-33995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-19-mayis","tag-ataturk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}