Istanbul
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On Sunday at 19 p.m., Filiz and her husband Mehmet will join thousands of Turks in a torchlight march in honor of the Republic's centenary. The procession will walk along the high walls of Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) breathed his last. "For me, celebrating the Republic means continuing on the path set by Atatürk," said Filiz, 52, with permed hair and bluish glasses.
On 29 October 1923, the Grand National Assembly, meeting in Ankara, proclaimed the Republic and buried the Ottoman Empire, whose fall had been precipitated by the First World War. But the new regime, anchored in the West, was born above all from a victory: that of the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1922) led by Mustafa Kemal against the Allied occupying powers and the Sultan's army. "To continue on the path traced by Atatürk," Filiz continues, "is to defend secularism, women's rights... Some prove themselves worthy of him, others...
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