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Turkey has achieved great development since the establishment of the republic by its founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and today strives for becoming one of the most developed countries, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.
Erdoğan, speaking at a commemoration event held on the occasion of the 82nd anniversary of Atatürk's demise in the capital Ankara, paid tribute to the founding father and commented on the development stages Turkey has gone through since its foundation.
Since the foundation of the republic...
Since the foundation of the republic, Turkey's population rose from 13 million to 83 million, Erdoğan said.
The total number of primary, secondary, and high schools along with higher education institutions surged from 5,000 to 88,000, while the number of teachers and faculty members increased from 12,400 to over 1.14 million, he noted, adding that today, the country has a total of 24 million students, whereas the number was 359,000 when the republic was founded.
Turkey's total number of doctors rose from 1,000 to 174,000 while the number of hospital beds increased from 10,000 to 251,000.
Erdoğan also noted that the number of factories employing over 10 workers rose from 540 to 185,000. The number of businesses which employed over 100 employees was 53, now the total number of businesses employing over 150 is 26,450, he said, adding that the number of businesses with over 250 employees reached 5,060.
The "deep and nefarious" siege of Turkey
Erdoğan said Turkey was subjected to a "deep and nefarious" siege as today the country is once again and more strongly fighting its War of Independence, which was launched a century ago.
He added that Turkey aims to be one of the world's top 10 economies, and achieving so would be the greatest gift to Atatürk, who "mobilized the Turkish nation against occupying forces and established the republic from scraps."
Turkey currently has the 19th largest economy in the world, down from 17th in the last the few years.
Atatürk was the first president of the republic until November 10, 1938, when he passed away in İstanbul at the age of 57 due to cirrhosis disease.
As a tradition, people visit Atatürk's mausoleum in Ankara every Nov. 10 and pay tributes to him, and the daily life stops at 9.05 a.m. local time, sirens wail to mark the exact moment of Atatürk's passing, with millions of people across the country observing two minutes of silence. (AS/VK)
