Speech Ataturk

On February 1933, about a 100 immigrants attempt a rebellion against the call to prayer (the azan) being read out in Turkish. The rebellion is supressed in a short amount of time. Ataturk goes to Bursa. During dinner in a mansion located on the road of Cekirge, someone ordinary attempts to say this to Ataturk: “ The Youth of Bursa should have supressed the incident, but because of its trust towards the police and justice..”, Ataturk quickly cuts the words of the person talking and gives the following speech:

The Turkish Youth, is the owner and the guardian of, revolutions and the republic. It has believed its rights and its need more than anyone. It has absorbed the way of governing and the revolutions. Once it’s aware of any movement or action, small or big which will make these weak, it’s not going to say “ This country has police, gendarme and an army”. With its hands, sticks and weapons, it’s going to protect what it made. The police are going to come, it’s going to leave the actual criminals and arrest the youth. The youth is going to think “ The police are not yet the police of the republic and the revolution” but never going to beg. The court is going to judge him. He’s going to think again “ so the justice organisation must be corrected and adjusted according to the way of governing”

They are going to throw him into the prison. He’s not going to use legal ways to oppose alongside with sending telegraphs to me, to the prime minister and to the parliament asking to be let go or to be backed up. He’s going to say “I have done the needs of my beliefs and my opinions. I am right in my protest and my interference. If I am here because of an injustice, it is also my duty to correct the reasons and the factors of this injustice”

That is what I understand as the Turkish Youth!

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

5th February 1933