Nutuk

Nutuk (Ottoman Turkish: نطق‎, lit. "The Speech") is a historic speech delivered by Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from 15 to 20 October 1927, at the second congress of the Republican People's Party (CHP) in Ankara. The speech details the events between the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence on 19 May 1919 and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. Spanning six days, the speech took a total of 36 hours and 33 minutes to be read by Atatürk. The text is considered a foundational document of Kemalism and the official historiography of the Turkish Republic's establishment. In it, Atatürk presents his perspective on the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the political, social, and military struggles that led to the creation of a new nation-state. It established a definitive narrative of the national struggle, solidified Atatürk's position as its leader, and served as a political and ideological guide for the new republic. While revered in Turkey as a primary source for the nation's founding, Nutuk has also been the subject of critical historical analysis for its role in constructing a singular national narrative, its defamation or neglection of other leaders, its hyperbole and exaggeration of Atatürk's own role, its silencing of alternative perspectives, and its omission of certain events, most notably the Armenian genocide.