Turkey marks 100th anniversary of republic's founding

Turkey marked the 100th anniversary on Sunday of its founding by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk with nationwide festivities displaying the country's colours and portraits of Atatürk. In Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan laid a wreath at Atatürk's mausoleum. Atatürk proclaimed the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923, more than a year after the official end of the Ottoman Empire. He placed Turkey on a course of secularism, including the strict separation of church and state, and charted a pro-Western course. Women were allowed to vote and to stand for public office, and the Roman alphabet replace...