Türkiye marked Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day on Monday, an occasion that honors both the country’s youth and the beginning of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s legendary journey in 1919 that culminated in the War of Independence led by the republic’s founder.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a message on the day and hailed how youth played a critical role in the future of the country that is now in the second century of the republic.
In the message shared by the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications on X, Erdoğan underscored the historical significance of May 19.
“We are protecting the homeland and the republic, sacred legacies entrusted to us by our ancestors and we are taking steps to advance and elevate the Republic of Türkiye, which will endure forever, in every field,” the president stated.
Erdoğan emphasized that he sees Turkish youth not only as the architects of the future, but also as a driving force of change, saying he “truly” believes that with their energy, determination and dreams, carrying the legacy of “our civilization in their hearts,” the Turkish youth will leave a defining mark “on our era as the ‘Century of Türkiye.'”
In the construction of Türkiye’s future, “we solve and permanently eliminate” any problem that will waste the energy of Turkish youth and the country’s resources with “fruitless discussions,” he said.
“We work with all our might to fulfill our promise to leave our youth a peaceful and serene, high-tech and prosperous country.
“We offer opportunities for our youth to discover their potential in every field, from science to art, sports to agriculture, diplomacy to nuclear technologies, and we walk hand in hand and arm in arm with our youth to realize our ideal of a great and powerful Türkiye,” the president noted.
He said Ankara will continue to support all Turkish youth who work tirelessly to achieve their goals, never give up and want to glorify further the civilizational heritage they inherited from their forefathers.
The president stated that they will always maintain their determination to work harder and achieve more for the Turkish youth by crediting them for every success of Türkiye, “which has become a central country as it grows stronger and has strengthened its position with the steps we have taken.”
Erdoğan commemorated “all the heroes of our War of Independence, Ghazi Mustafa Kemal in particular.”
May 19, 1919, was the day when Atatürk, who was later the founder of the Republic of Türkiye, arrived in the Black Sea city of Samsun from Istanbul to launch the war that four years later transformed the nation into modern Türkiye.
In 1938, Atatürk dedicated May 19 to the youth of the Turkish nation as Youth and Sports Day, a national holiday that sees young people take part in sporting and cultural activities with official ceremonies across the country.
According to statistics, Türkiye faces the threat of an aging population. Still, it is ahead of European countries in this field. The youth make up 14.9% of the population according to official figures from 2024. The youth unemployment rate, meanwhile, stands at around 16%. The youth, however, will make up only 10.3% of the population in 2060, according to projections.
The latest figures by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), based on a Life Satisfaction Survey in 2024, show that the number of people in the age group of 18-24 who declared they were happy was 51.8%.