President Erdoğan: The year 1921, when the Sakarya Victory was won, is one of the turning points of our thousand year existence in Anatolia

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech during the celebrations marking the centenary of the Sakarya Victory.

Underlining the importance of the 1921 Sakarya Victory in Turkish history, President Erdoğan said the year 1921, when the Sakarya Victory was won, is one of the turning points of not only a war but also of the thousand year Turkish existence in Anatolia. The President stated that the Sakarya Victory, having taken place in the most critical phase of the National Struggle, averted the enemy’s assault on the Turkish capital.

“THE SAKARYA VICTORY IS ONE OF THE IMPORTANT CHAPTERS OF OUR HISTORY”

“The Sakarya Victory – just like the Manzikert Victory as well as the conquest of Bursa, Edirne and Istanbul – is one of the important chapters of our glorious history extending from the gates of Vienna to the Red Sea,” the President said. “Therefore, we should pass down from generation to generation the story of this victory achieved on the Polatlı-Haymana line, the final bastion of our national struggle, and thus make sure that under what conditions and with what great sacrifices our Independence War was won is never forgotten.”  

President Erdoğan continued as follows: “The Grand National Assembly and the government based in Ankara started to be regarded as the true representatives of the nation in the international arena following the Sakarya Victory. This situation enabled the transfer of the struggle waged on the ground to the diplomatic field as well.” 

“THE TURKISH NATION TURNED ITS NATIONAL STRUGGLE INTO A FRESH START WITH THE REPUBLIC IT FOUNDED”

Noting that the Ankara Government launched a struggle against the mentality, which politically and economically strangled the Ottoman state, after it had taken control over the rest of the homeland following the liberation of Izmir, President Erdoğan stated: “This arduous struggle, with the Sèvres imposition at one end and the National Will at the other end, resulted in the Lausanne Peace Treaty. Having fought tooth and nail, body and soul; the Turkish nation turned its national struggle into a fresh start with the Republic it founded.”