Mustafa Kemal

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed to take action following controversy over a graduation ceremony at the National Defense University's (MSÜ) land forces academy.

"Some exploiters came forward and drew their swords during the recent graduation ceremony," Erdoğan said at an event in the northwestern city of Kocaeli on Sept. 7.

The Defense Ministry has launched an investigation into the oath-taking ceremony held by newly commissioned lieutenants at the National Defense University's (MSÜ) land forces academy.

"The incident is being investigated from all aspects," Zeki Aktürk, press and public relations advisor for the ministry, said at a press conference on Sept. 5.

The Pan-Pontian Federation of Greece issued a statement at the weekend about a song sung by a Turkish-Cypriot singer Isin Karaca during an event organized in the central square of Komotini in northwestern Greece on August 4 as an "unacceptable provocation" and a "direct insult," as it references the destruction of Smyrna.

In a moving tribute to modern Türkiye's founder and war hero Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a new monument was unveiled on the Gallipoli Peninsula, marking the exact spot where a historic photo of Atatürk was taken 109 years ago at the battlefield of the Gallipoli Campaign during the World War I.

Until early 2023, it seemed that Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey was set to celebrate the 100 years since its founding on October 29 with an emphasis on how the founders "threw the Greeks into the sea." The Turkish president's oft-repeated threat, "We will come one night," stressed this past and the later invasion of Cyprus.

The clocks in pensioner C house still show the moment modern Türkiye's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk died in 1938.

So do the calendars and all sort of other trinkets dedicated to the man who built a brand new nation out of the Ottoman Empire's ruins 100 years ago.

Standing at the foot of the cliff overlooking Kemaliye, the golden statue of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of the nation, evokes the glorious past of this small town in the eastern province of Erzincan.

One hundred and one years ago, Ataturk's army expelled my great-grandmother and her family from Yeronda, now known as Didim, their ancestral homeland in Anatolia. I actively campaign for the American and Canadian governments to recognize the Greek genocide. I constantly criticize Ankara's democratic back-sliding, mistreatment of minorities and aggressive foreign policy.

Turks gathered to pay their tributes to fallen soldiers in the northwestern province of Çanakkale on the 108th anniversary of Anafartalar Victory, marked with a ceremony in Conkbayırı located on the historic Gelibolu Peninsula.

A large number of protocol members and guests also attended the ceremony held in front of the Atatürk Monument on Aug. 10.

Following a meeting between Homeland Party Chair Muharrem İnce and the joint candidate of the Nation Alliance and the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Turkish media reported on March 30 that it is unlikely İnce will give up his presidential bid.