UN General Assembly
1964

39. The right of peoples to independence is one of the basic principles which the Turkish Republic has tirelessly proclaimed and supported since it was founded. For Turkey is a country which forty years ago waged a hard struggle against imperialism in order to free itself from foreign invasion and occupation and to protect its independence, its territorial integrity and its national dignity. Turkey was one of the first countries to proclaim the principle of self-determination of peoples and to oppose all foreign intervention, whether political or economic, in its national affairs. In the days of the League of Nations, it refused to be a party to the Mandates System, whose aim was to impose the colonial system on peoples fully capable of governing themselves. Because it remembers its own still recent past and its own trials, Turkey welcomes with joy the colonial people's accession to independence and supports all the constructive efforts made by the United Nations in that regard.