As millions across Türkiye prepare to celebrate the May 19 Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, officials have brought soil from modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s birthplace in Thessaloniki as a symbolic tribute to the start of the nation’s War of Independence.
Wrapped in a Turkish flag, the so-called “ancestor’s soil” was transported from Atatürk’s birthplace in Thessaloniki, Greece, to the İpsala border gate in the northwestern province of Edirne under an initiative organized by local authorities and Turkish associations.
The soil was then handed over to a group of athletes participating in a commemorative peace run that will carry it first to the Black Sea city of Samsun and later to Anıtkabir, Atatürk’s mausoleum in Ankara.
May 19 is one of Türkiye’s most important national holidays.
It commemorates Atatürk’s arrival in Samsun on May 19, 1919, a moment widely considered the start of the independence struggle following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The date is officially celebrated as the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, a national holiday dedicated to young people and sporting activities.
Across the country, cities marked the occasion with ceremonies, concerts, festivals and public races.
In Samsun, the Turkish Air Force aerobatic teams SOLOTÜRK and Turkish Stars carried out rehearsal flights ahead of their May 19 aerial performances over the city.
In the central province of Kırıkkale, residents joined a five-kilometer public run organized during Youth Week celebrations, while participants in the northeastern province of Rize competed in a public run along a 5,353-meter course.
Municipal celebrations also drew large crowds elsewhere in the country.
In Istanbul, more than 1,000 people participated in a 1,919-meter public run organized by the Bahçelievler Municipality, with the distance symbolically referencing the year Atatürk launched the independence movement, while students attending a youth festival in the highlands of Kastamonu formed a giant crescent-and-star choreography inspired by the Turkish flag.
More than 1,000 people joined a 1,919-meter public run hosted by Istanbul’s Bahçelievler Municipality, a distance honoring the year Atatürk began the Turkish independence movement. Meanwhile, at a youth festival in the Kastamonu highlands, students gathered in formation to create a giant crescent and star, bringing the Turkish flag to life.
