{"id":37325,"date":"2026-05-19T18:45:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/turkey-celebrates-may-19-ataturk-memorial-day-and-youth-and-sports-day\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T18:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:45:33","slug":"turkey-celebrates-may-19-ataturk-memorial-day-and-youth-and-sports-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/turkey-celebrates-may-19-ataturk-memorial-day-and-youth-and-sports-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey celebrates May 19, Ataturk Memorial Day and Youth and Sports Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/thumbs_b_c_327d2e1ce940cf1e71f6b9d5503ca346.jpg\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;margin-bottom:20px\"><\/p>\n<p>Turkey today celebrates Ataturk Memorial Day, Youth and Sports Day, a historic event that marks the beginning of the country&#8217;s War of Independence, reports Anadolu.<\/p>\n<p>May 19, 1919 was the day Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, arrived in the Black Sea city of Samsun from Istanbul to start the war that, four years later, would transform the nation into Turkey. modern.<\/p>\n<p>Ataturk was appointed to the post of Inspector General of the Ottoman Armies in Anatolia when Istanbul, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire, was under occupation by Allied forces. He acted against the orders given by the Ottoman authorities and started the movement that later became the War of Independence.<\/p>\n<p>He attached great importance to the date he set foot in Samsun and considered May 19 as his birthday when asked to give an exact date of birth.<\/p>\n<p>In 1938, Ataturk dedicated May 19 to the youth of the Turkish nation as Youth Day. Sports, a national holiday that sees young people participating in sports and cultural activities with official ceremonies held across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Young people celebrate this day by visiting Anitkabir, Ataturk&#8217;s mausoleum in Ankara as well as organizing sports and cultural activities.<\/p>\n<p>In a message shared on Turkish social media platform NSosyal, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated all young people living in Turkey and abroad. &#8220;I respectfully remember Gazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Commander-in-Chief of our National War, his comrades-in-arms and the heroic members of our army, known as the Hearth of the Prophet,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I remember with mercy our martyrs who sacrificed their lives for our nation and I wish our veterans a healthy and prosperous life,&#8221; President Erdogan added.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Osman Askin Bak and his accompanying delegation, consisting of deputy ministers, general directors, athletes, youth participants and other officials, visited Anitkabir.<\/p>\n<p>After Minister Bak placed a wreath decorated with red and white carnations with the words &#8220;Ministry of Youth and Sports&#8221; on the mausoleum, a minute&#8217;s silence was observed, followed by the singing of the Turkish national anthem.<\/p>\n<p>Bak also signed the Memorial Book of Anitkabir, writing: &#8220;May 19, the first step towards liberation, symbolizes our nation&#8217;s resistance against oppression, its rebirth and its determination for independence. This sacred heritage that you entrusted to the Turkish youth continues to live today with the same faith, spirit and direction&#8221;.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin:30px 0\">\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#666\">Source: <strong>prizrenpost<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turkey today celebrates Ataturk Memorial Day, Youth and Sports Day, a historic event that marks the beginning of the country&#8217;s War of Independence, reports Anadolu. May 19, 1919 was the day Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, arrived in the Black Sea city of Samsun from Istanbul to start the war [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[666],"class_list":["post-37325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-brief"],"views":6,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37327,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37325\/revisions\/37327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prizrenpost.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}