Ataturk's Address to Youth

Oh Turkish Youth!

Your first duty is to forever preserve and defend Turkish independence and the Turkish Republic.

This is the only foundation of your existence and future. This foundation is your most precious treasure. Even in the future, 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 possibilities and circumstances before taking up your duty! These possibilities and circumstances may turn out to be extremely unfavorable. The enemies making an attempt 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 fortresses of your beloved homeland 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 negligent, misguided, and even in treachery. These people in power may even align their personal interests to the political designs of the invaders. The nation may be ruined and exhausted in impoverishment.

Oh, Child of Turkey's future!

Even in these circumstances it is your duty to save Turkish independence and the Turkish Republic!

The strength you need is within the noble blood in your veins!

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

October 20, 1927