The founder of the modern Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk with his wife, Latife Hanim.

The Turkish republic has now been a member of the international community for over 70 years. During this period, great changes have occurred and many difficulties have been encountered. But the country remains firmly attached to the policies initiated by Ataturk. It has established a democratic multi-party political system, developed a vibrant civil society, and embarked on the part of industrialisation and market economy. It has consolidated its ties with the west through membership of NATO and the Council of Europe and Customs Union with the European Union. These trends mark a radical change from the days of the Ottoman Empire. Yet there is also continuity. The Turks have inherited both from the Islamic past and their ottoman past. They have also inherited from their western past, as well as forming a part of the Western present. All these heritages, Eastern and western, Asian and European, are intermingled in the civilisation of modern Turkey. A symbol of this union is the two bridges that span the Bosphorus, linking the two continents with many pasts and one future.

Hundreds of thousands of allied soldiers who fought in vain to capture the Dardanelles straits, in order to cross over to Istanbul, and the heroic Turkish soldiers who defended their motherland during World War I now rest side by side forever in Turkish soil at Gallipoli.