Parade and air show to mark TRNC’s 43rd anniversary

 

Events begin on Friday, November 13, when around 3,000 pupils from Lefkoşa-area schools take part in the annual Republic Day procession. The march will set off from the Diren Roundabout, known as the Purple Roundabout, at 10am and finish at the Presidential Palace. Pupils will carry TRNC and Turkish flags, each 100 metres long.

Saturday, November 14

The official programme will open at noon with an address by President Tufan Erhürman on Bayrak Radio and Television and a 21-gun salute. Ceremonies will follow at the mausoleums of Dr Fazıl Küçük at 3pm and Rauf Raif Denktaş at 3.30pm.

Türkiye’s military band will perform at the Atatürk Monument in Girne at 3.30pm. In Gazimağusa, a torchlight procession will leave the Victory Monument at 5.30pm and end at Namık Kemal Square. The Security Forces Command Band and the municipality’s folk dance group will perform in the square, followed by concerts by Soyhan Bilgeer and Emrah Daban.

A Republic Day festival at Near East University’s Event Park will also begin at 5.30pm, with performances by Ahmet Evan, Fikri Karayel and Grup Rast, alongside folk and modern dance shows.

Sunday, November 15

President Erhürman will receive Republic Day greetings at the Presidential Palace at 8.45am. A wreath-laying ceremony at the Atatürk Monument in Lefkoşa will follow at 9.30am.

The main ceremony on Dr Fazıl Küçük Boulevard begins at 10am. Flags brought from Lefke and Erenköy will be presented to President Erhürman, who will speak alongside a representative of the Turkish Presidency. A performance by Türkiye’s military band will precede the parade.

In Girne, a ceremony and parade will begin at the Atatürk Monument at 2pm. The Turkish Stars, the Turkish Air Force’s aerobatic team, will perform over the waterfront at 3.30pm. President Erhürman and First Lady Nilden Bektaş Erhürman will host a reception at the Presidential Palace at 7pm.

District ceremonies and sport

Sunday ceremonies will also take place at the Martyrs’ Monument in Lefkoşa at 8.30am, the Atatürk Monument in Güzelyurt and Ecevit Square in İskele at 9am, and the Atatürk Monument in Lefke at 11.45am. Gazimağusa will hold a wreath-laying ceremony at the Victory Monument at 2.30pm, followed by celebrations and a parade on İsmet İnönü Boulevard from 3pm.

Mehmetçik, Akdoğan and Geçitkale will hold ceremonies at 9am. Commemorations will follow in Geçitkale at 9.30am and at the Martyrs’ Monument in Yeniboğaziçi at 11.45am.

The weekend’s sporting programme includes a football tennis tournament at Eastern Mediterranean University in Gazimağusa at 3pm on Saturday. On Sunday, the Republic Cup golf tournament starts at Korineum at 7am, youth fencing begins at Girne’s Ertuğrul Apakan Sports Hall at 9am, and archery in Lefkoşa and martial arts in Girne get under way at 10am. A road cycling race starts at Lefkoşa’s Millet Bahçesi at 1.30pm.