By Baris Gundogan
ANKARA (AA) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday released a written statement for the occasion of Victory Week, praising the resolution and determination shown by the Turkish nation during the 1919-1923 War of Independence.
The last week of August is marked as Victory Week because of two key victories by Turkish forces: the Battle of Malazgirt on Aug. 26, 1071, resulting in Seljuq Turks’ defeat of the Byzantine army, opening the way for Turkish domination of Anatolia, and the start of the Great Offensive on Aug. 26, 1922, resulting in Greeks’ defeat at the hands of the Turks.
In a statement released by the Presidential Press Office, Erdogan lauded the Great Offensive -- the final and biggest military operation of the Turkish War of Independence -- as a “symbol of the Turkish nation’s revival.”
The resolution and determination displayed by Turks during the great victories prove that the Turkish nation has enough “power and courage to overcome every kind of difficulty,” he said.
“The prices that our ancestors paid in order to make this soil our homeland, and our nation’s determination in fighting -- which has become a model for the entire globe -- is the greatest guarantor of our republic,” Erdogan added.
Erdogan's remarks come days before the 95th anniversary of Victory Day on Aug. 30, which commemorates the victory in the Battle of Dumlupinar in Turkey's Aegean province of Kutahya in 1922, as part of the Great Offensive.