Atatürk's Address To Turkish Youth

Atatürk's Address To The Youth of Turkey (Turkish: Atatürk'ün Türk Gençliğine Hitabesi) is a famous speech by the Republic of Turkey's first president, founding father, and national hero, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, spoken as the concluding statements to his 36-hour 20 October 1927 address to the Parliament, wherein he laid out, in a sweeping and thoroughly-detailed retrospective, the history and intellectual foundations of the Turkish War of Independence and the fight for modernity, liberty and democracy that fueled the Turkish Revolution, and ultimately led to the October 29, 1923 establishment of the Republic of Turkey.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk reading the address at the Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Turkey, 1927.
Background (Calligraphy): حاكميت ملتكدر Hakimiyet Milletindir means "Sovereignty Belongs to the Nation”

An example of a common classroom display in Turkey, including the speech at far left.)

The speech is a direct address to the present and future younger generations of the country, and functions as a call to vigilance in the face of difficulties that may face the nation, as well as a reminder of the civic and patriotic duty of each citizen to protect their freedoms in the face of internal and external adversaries.

A framed version of the speech typically occupies the wall above the blackboard in the classrooms of Turkish schools, accompanied by a Turkish flag, a photograph of the country's founding father Atatürk, and a copy of the national anthem.