CHILDREN TAKE CENTRE STAGE
National Sovereignty and Children’s Day celebrations begin with parade and show
SIX days of celebrations for this year’s April 23 National Sovereignty and Children’s Day began on Thursday.
The activities kicked off with a parade in Lefkoşa organised by the National Education Ministry.
Primary schoolchildren, accompanied by their teachers and National Education Minister Nazım Çavuşoğlu, laid wreaths at the capital’s Atatürk monument and then walked from there to the Presidency building and then Parliament.
During the celebrations at the Presidency, President Ersin Tatar and Çavuşoğlu gave speeches, while children read out poems and put on dance performances.
Parliament Speaker Zorlu Töre later hosted children in front of the Parliament building, where children put on various performances including dancing, singing, music, acrobatics and poem recitals.
On Monday, 15 children from five districts of the TRNC will visit state and government officials as part of the celebrations.
On the same day, 50 children will symbolically take the seats of the country’s 50 MPs and hold a debate on children’s rights.
On Tuesday, April 23 – which is a public holiday – National Education Minister Çavuşoğlu will speak on BRT state television to mark the day.
A wreath-laying ceremony will be held at the Atatrük monument, while primary schools across the country will host their own events to celebrate the occasion.
As part of the celebrations, children will also participate in various sports events, including volleyball, basketball and athletics tournaments.
The semi-finals of the “2nd Champion Angels Volleyball Tournament” took place at Gazimağusa’s “Magem” venue yesterday in memory of the volleyball teams from Gazimağusa Türk Maarif College who died in last year’s earthquake disaster in Türkiye.
On the same day, sprint races took place at Lefkoşa’s Atatürk Stadium. A “basketball festival” will be organised at Near East University’s RA25 Sports Hall today.
Meanwhile an art exhibition called “Atatürk’s Children” was opened in the capital on Thursday at the “Lefkoşa Merkez” centre’s Events and Culture Hall. The exhibition will be open to the public until Tuesday.
This year’s events mark the 104th anniversary of the establishment of Türkiye’s Grand National Assembly, a day dedicated to children by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.