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LV Band in front of motto written from thousands of flags, saying 100th anniversary.
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GVs Youths from high schools march with flags.
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SV General Evren and other officers on dais.
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SV PULL BACK TO LV General Evren taking salute.
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GV Mass display in stadium as Minister of Youth and Sports Vecdi Ozgul speaks in Turkish. (2 SHOTS)
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GV PAN Participants march off.
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Initials JS





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: INTRODUCTION: Celebrations were held throughout Turkey on Tuesday (19 May) to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the man regarded as the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. In the capital, Ankara, a crowd of 30,000 people packed the city's main soccer stadium for a mass rally by flag waving students and a speech by Turkey's Head of State, General Kenan Evren.

SYNOPSIS: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is a hero in modern Turkey. His portrait looks down from offices, restaurants, factories and classrooms throughout the country. It was Ataturk who led Turkey after defeat in the First World War, and created a modern, secular, West-leaning nation.

In a speech to the crowd, Turkey's Head of State, General Kenan Evren acknowledged his debt to Ataturk. His philosophy, he told the crowd, was the only path for Turkey to follow.

Ataturk's ideal was a liberal, secular state. But the terrorism that has racked Turkey for the past decade has thwarted that ideal. Last September General Evren led a military coup claiming the civilian government could not keep order. Moslem extremists, such as the Pope's would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca, have sought to undo Turkey's external relations have suffered, through criticism of the coup in Western Europe. but in Turkey, Ataturk's memory is revered, even though his goals have never been fully achieved.