Atatürk's Address to the
Youth
Oh Turkish Youth! Your first duty
is to preserve and defend forever Turkish independence and the Turkish
Republic.
This is the only foundation of your existence
and of your future. This foundation is your most precious treasure.
In the future, too, there will be malevolent
people at home and abroad who will wish to deprive you of this treasure. If
one day you have to defend your independence and your Republic, you will not
tarry to weigh the circumstances before taking up your duty. These
possibilities and circumstances may be extremely unfavorable. The enemies
nursing designs against your independence and your republic, may have behind
them a victory unprecedented in the annals of the world. It may come to pass
that, by violence and ruse, all the fortresses of your beloved fatherland will
be occupied, all its shipyards captured, all its armies dispersed, and every
part of the country invaded. And what is sadder and graver than all these
circumstances is that the people in power inside the country may be blind,
misguided. They may even be traitors. The men in power may join their personal
interest to the political designs of the invaders. The country may be
impoverished, ruined and exhausted.
Oh, Child of Turkey's future, even in
these circumstances it is your duty to save Turkey's independence and the
Turkish Republic.
You will find the power you need in the noble
blood in your veins.
20th October 1927
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
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