'Turkey will have voice in new world's order'

ANKARA

Turkey will make its voice heard in the new world order after the novel coronavirus outbreak, the country's parliament speaker said on Thursday.

Turkish Parliament held a special sitting on the centenary of the first session of the Grand National Assembly National, which coincides with the country's National Sovereignty and Children's Day.

In an opening speech, Mustafa Sentop told the lawmakers following the pandemic, countries would discuss how to "evolve" the world, adding that Turkey would protect its rights in the making of the "new world order."

Stressing that the global COVID-19 outbreak exposed that the current world order was not sustainable, Sentop said: "We can't speak of global peace unless this severe and unlawful order is changed."

National Sovereignty and Children's Day is a public holiday in Turkey commemorating the foundation of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on April 23, 1920.

Ahead of the session, senior politicians, including Sentop, Republican People's Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Nationalist Movement Party chief Devlet Bahceli and IYI Party chairwoman Meral Aksener, visited the mausoleum of the Republic of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the capital Ankara.

Sentop underlined that Turkey was marking the 100th anniversary of the "Gazi" (veteran) parliament.

"[Gazi parliament] is not the result of the War of Independence, but its center and headquarters," Sentop said.

"Turkey, reborn from its ashes a hundred years ago, is today more powerful, enthusiastic and alive," he added.

In the early years of the country, Ataturk, dedicated April 23 to children, emphasizing that they were the future of the nation.

The national assembly met for the first time in 1920 in Ankara, the country's future capital, during the War of Independence to lay the foundations for an independent, secular, and modern republic.