It would be tempting to dedicate this anniversary to them, but they would have been the first to say that birthdays are for young people. And Turkey, in its demographic composition and in its enthusiasm, remains an extraordinarily youthful nation. Proof of that vigor is the pace at which the nation embraces change. The Istanbul Stock Exchange has a technological infrastructure as sophisticated as those of markets in Zurich or Milan which it out-trades on a good day. The skyline of Turkish corporates includes firms inching their way up the Fortune 500.
Turkey sells televisions to Japan and fashion accessories to New York.
Once-isolated towns in the east now fill order books for department stores in Hamburg and Madrid, being chosen as suppliers because of quality and rapid delivery. An area surrounding the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers and equal in size to the entire Benelux countries put together is becoming a garden again as the result of a massive hydroelectric and irrigation project. And all this is happening at a rate which would astound not only those who celebrated that proclamation of statehood back in 1923 but anyone watching Turkey even a decade ago. The candles on the cake burned brightly.