29 Ekim Cumhuriyet Bayramı

Here's a little game. How many Turkish flags do you see in this picture?


I counted nine, but there could be others lurking in corners. My neighborhood doesn't always look like this, but it so happens that today was a holiday.


October 29 is Republic Day, the anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923. It's a national holiday, so schools and many businesses were closed. There was a parade this morning, but we didn't attend. But we did see that everyone was flying their national colors today. These ranged from very small:



to very large:
I already knew that Turks are very patriotic, but today I got a much better glimpse into how proud they are of their country. Just walking around you could get a sense of the pride they take in their republic. People had flags and little pictures of Atatürk on their car windows and hanging from their rearview mirrors driving around. Every bus had a flag flying on the front corner. Some guys on the bus saw us looking and pointing at the sheer quantity of flags displayed, and proudly asked us what we thought about it.

And remember how I said they really like Atatürk? I wasn't joking. He's everywhere too, more so than usual. He's even on the Google logo!



Quite a sight, isn't it? And it was like this all over the city. Rather inspiring, I think.