The Republic of Turkey was founded by the Turkish Nation under the able leadership of Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, after the dissolution of the transcontinental Ottoman Empire, in 1923. Today, we are celebrating the 96th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic of Turkey.

I would like to thank you all for sharing our pride.

Republic of Turkey is a secular, democratic and social state governed by the rule of law. Turkey is situated at the centre of a challenging geography. In recent years Turkey is surrounded by fragilities and affected by the problems of the region it is living in. Since its foundation, Turkey has guided by the principle of “Peace at Home, Peace in the World” set out by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic. In today’s world, we understand and appreciate the deep meaning and the value of his visionary principle much better.

Like the refugee crises and terrorism over her borders, Turkey sometimes is trying to handle the problems alone, without or with a very late support of the international community. As the President of the Republic of Turkey HE Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says, more lives will be saved when we overcome terrorism, the enemy of humanity.

Turkey is hosting more than 4 million refugees who have left their homes for the fear of death. Over 3.6 million of them are Syrians.

Turkey regards helping countries in difficult times due to war, social clashes, natural disasters, or poverty as a humanitarian duty. Turkish nation has an enduring tradition of humanitarian aid. This is a part of Turkish culture.

All the developments in our trouble-ridden region and the world bring to the fore the necessity to pursue an action-oriented, innovative but a principled foreign policy.

Turkey exerts efforts to provide speedily humanitarian aid to those who is in need of help, within the bounds of its possibilities, without making any discrimination of race, religion or gender.

As pursuing innovative, action-oriented, multidimensional and principled foreign policy which we call as Enterprising and Humanitarian Foreign Policy, Turkey also follows with keen interest the developments in the Africa continent. In this respect, Turkey highly values its friendship with Namibia. Our relations have started during the period of anti-colonial struggle.



Turkey supported this struggle and did her best in the UN framework.

In this context, on 26 August 1975, Turkish General Directorate of Post and Telegraph Organization-PTT issued a commemorative stamp on the occasion of the “Namibia Day”, which was decided by the UN General Assembly on 12 December 1973, upon the request of the UN Council for Namibia. At that time, Turkey was one of the 11 members of the UN Council for Namibia elected by the UN General Assembly. The issuing date of that stamp - 26 August 1975- was 15 years before the independence of Namibia. Now Namibia remembers 26 August as “Heroes Day”. Today I would like to share with you the photographic samples of this commemorative stamp and its First Day Cover. (You can get one of the photographic sample when you are leaving. Now I would like to present one of this photographic sample to the Guest of Honour, Deputy Minister Hon. Christine //Hoebes as a memory of today).

Both Turkey and Namibia have the political will to boost their relations. In 2019, our Health Minister and our Parliamentarian delegation visited Namibia. The first Turkey-Namibia Joint Trade and Economic Committee Meeting and the first Meeting of Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group were held in Windhoek. We would like to thank the Namibian side for the sincere hospitality extended to our Minister, Parliamentarians and Member of the delegations. This year, the second tour of Political Consultations was held in Ankara. Through the consultations, we found a chance to exchange views on bilateral and multilateral matters.

In these days, Hon. Minister of Health and Social Services of Namibia was in Turkey, in order to attend the Health Conference and Expo (Health care Information and Management Systems Society-HIMSS Eurasia 2019 and (Electronic medical Record Adoption Model-EMRAM Educational Conference and Health IT Exhibition), and 6th Turkish Medical World Congress in İstanbul.

I am confident that we will expand and diversify our relations in the coming period. I will continue to do my very best in this respect.

Before concluding my words, I would like to remind you two news from Turkey: “Göbeklitepe Archaeological Site”, located in Şanlıurfa, Turkey, has been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2018, with a history dating back 12.000 years. For that reason, “Year 2019” was declared as “Year of Göbeklitepe” in Turkey.

On the other hand, another city from Turkey, Kütahya became a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in 2017, as a “Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art”. It is well known that Kütahya’s history is not only written with letters, but also with tiles. The aim of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) is to promote cooperation and innovation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development and notably for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Today you have a chance to take a look at the photographs of “Göbeklitepe Archaeological Site”, and “Kütahya Creative City”. And inside our Residence, you also have a chance to see examples of Kütahya tiles, which are exhibited inside in our “homemade” exhibition platform.

Distinguished Guests,

Now it is a duty and also an honour for me to read the message of my President, HE Recep Tayyip Erdoğan which is being read in all Embassies of the Republic of Turkey all around the world on this occasion:

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My Cherished Nation…

I would like to congratulate the Republic Day of our citizens, who live in 81 provinces of our country and abroad.

I thank to all our friends who share the joy of this very important milestone of our history with us.

Happy 96th anniversary for the proclamation of our Republic.

I remember with respect all our heroes, to start with Gazi (Veteran) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who contributed to the victory in our Independence War with a century-old glorious past and to the foundation of our new state.

Turkey is a country that has maintained its struggle for independence from beginning till the end through the National Assembly, which represents the national will.

I would like to express my gratitude to all the deputies who have worked for the development, strengthening and progress of our country so far from our Grand National Assembly, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.

I wish Allah’s mercy upon our martyrs who paid the price so that we could live in the most favorite and disputed geographical area of the world for a thousand years.

As a nation and as a state, we have been in a historical struggle again in recent years in order to protect our existence and our future.

All the events we have experienced such as the attacks of terrorist organizations, the treacherous coup attempt of July 15th and others are manifestations of this historical struggle.

Operation Euphrates Shield, Operation Olive Branch and the Operation Peace Spring, which we conduct in Syria, are also parts of this struggle.

We are conducting a struggle similar to our Independence War, which we started a century ago and crowned by establishing our new Republic, with different images and methods.

All kinds of plots and mischief aimed at disrupting our national unity and solidarity are displayed.

The security of our borders, our economy and similar important issues are under multi-faceted attacks which target our sovereignty and continue uninterrupted.

Turkey, with its long history, its deeply rooted governing experience and almost century-long accumulations as a Republic, has the power, capability and determination to overcome all these problems.

As a matter of fact, with the help of Allah, with the support of our nation, we foiled all the traps set against our country one by one.

I sincerely believe that we will successfully conclude this important process as well, in accordance with the vision of those who left our Republic to us as a legacy.

By bringing our country to its 2023 goals, we will give the next generations the opportunity to fulfill their 2053 and 2071 visions.

Hopefully, we will move our Republic forward in a much stronger and more prosperous manner.

May Allah’s compassion and mercy be upon us.

With these feelings, I congratulate once again the 96th anniversary of the Proclamation of our Republic.

May you be blessed with good health.

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With your permission, I want to address in Turkish to our dear citizens.

Cumhuriyetimizin kuruluşunun 96. yıldönümünü mutlulukla ve coşkuyla kutluyoruz. Bu en büyük ulusal bayramımızda bizlerle birlikte olduğunuz için teşekkür ediyorum. Cumhuriyet Bayramınızı en içten dileklerimle kutluyorum.

I would like to express my best wishes for the bright future of friendly relations between our countries, and for the health and well-beings of H.E. Dr. Hage Gottfried Geingob, President of the Republic of Namibia and H.E. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Turkey.

I thank you all for kind attention. Thank you very much.

Now, I would like to invite Guest of Honour, Deputy Minister of the International Relations and Cooperation Honourable Christine //Hoebes to the floor. Floor is yours.