At exactly 9:05 AM on November 10, 1938, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father and first President of the Republic of Turkey, passed away in Istanbul's Dolmabahçe Palace at age 57. Every year on November 10, life across Turkey comes to an absolute halt at 9:05 AM: traffic stops on bridges and highways, pedestrians freeze, factory whistles and city sirens wail, and the nation observes two minutes of reverent silence. High-ranking dignitaries and hundreds of thousands of citizens make a pilgrimage to Anıtkabir, Atatürk's mausoleum in Ankara, reflecting on his transformative reforms—including the secularization of state institutions, granting women equal voting rights in 1934, replacing Arabic script with the Latin alphabet, and establishing universal primary education.
At exactly 9:05 AM on November 10, 1938, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father and first President of the Republic of Turkey, passed away in Istanbul's Dolmabahçe Palace at age 57. Every year on November 10, life across Turkey comes to an absolute halt at 9:05 AM: traffic stops on bridges and highways, pedestrians freeze, factory whistles and city sirens wail, and the nation observes two minutes of reverent silence. High-ranking dignitaries and hundreds of thousands of citizens make a pilgrimage to Anıtkabir, Atatürk's mausoleum in Ankara, reflecting on his transformative reforms—including the secularization of state institutions, granting women equal voting rights in 1934, replacing Arabic script with the Latin alphabet, and establishing universal primary education.
