Ataturk group marks 19 May

Turkey’s youth and sports day commemorated with a gala event in Wood Green

May 19, the anniversary of the day Turkey’s founder began his years-long struggle for Turkish independence after the First World War, was marked in London last week.

The event at Wood Green’s Grand Palace was a celebratory affair with the attendance of 300 people. It also marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the UK’s Ataturk Thought Association (ADD), an organisation established in memory of modern Turkey’s father.

Hakan Akbulut, the worldwide head of the ADD, and retired admiral Türker Ertürk were guests of honour at the event, at which music was provided by the Hoş Seda Klasik Türk Müziği Korosu conducted by Baha Yetkin; and performances from Melek Yalçın, Özgür Canyurt and friends from the Fasl-ı Keyf group.

ADD UK director Jale Özer said during her remarks that the Turkish republic was living through its darkest, most dangerous days since its foundation in 1923 and that it was headed towards a single-state, single-party sharia-based fascist system of administration.

She said last months executive presidency referendum was tarnished by vote fraud and that the entire country was being transferred to a single individual.

19 May is marked each year as Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, an annual Turkish national holiday celebrated to commemorate Mustafa Kemal’s landing at Samsun on 19 May 1919.

This is regarded as the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence in the Turkey’s official historiography.