Turks mark 99th anniversary of Great Offensive with several events

Turkish people marked the 99th anniversary of the Great Offensive, a major counterattack launched by Turkish armies under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern Turkey, against occupying Greek forces in 1922.

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Hot air balloon flights were carried out near Lake Emre as part of the 99th anniversary of the Great Offensive events held in the Central Anatolian province of Afyonkarahisar, the starting point of the counterattack.

Over 20 hot air balloons, five of which were demonstration balloons took off in the event, which started with the sunrise with hundreds of people enjoying the magnificent scenery from the ground.

Meanwhile, athletes who participated in the Great Attack Cycling Tour, which started from the Mausoleum of Atatürk in Ankara on Aug. 22, have finally arrived in the Central Anatolian province of Konya.

Speaking to reporters on behalf of the cyclists, Osman Kutlu, the event organizer, stated that they followed the route that was followed by the Turkish army during the offensive and that they also visited martyr's cemeteries on the roads they passed.

Kutlu underlined that the organization aims to remind people by bringing to light the forgotten and unknown heroes of the Great Offensive, the military attack that beat back the Greek occupation of Anatolia and paved the way for the founding of the Republic.

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The Offensive, "Büyük Taarruz" in Turkish, began on Aug. 26, 1922, the culmination of Turkey's Independence War from 1919 to 1922.

The Great Offensive ended with the Turkish occupation of İzmir on the Aegean coast, which had been under Greek control since May 15, 1919.

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