Public holidays in Turkey

Last updated

The official holidays in Turkiye are established by the Act 2429 of 19 March 1981 that replaced the Act 2739 of 27 May 1935. These holidays can be grouped in national and religious holidays, which in total equals to 15.5 days of public holiday. [1]

Contents

List

  General holidays
  Official holidays
  National holidays
  Religious holidays

Available holidays

DateEnglish nameLocal nameRemarks
1 January New Year's Day YılbaşıFirst day of the Gregorian new year
23 April National Sovereignty and Children's Day Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk BayramıCommemoration of the first opening of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey at Ankara in 1920. Dedicated to the children.
1 May Labour and Solidarity Day Emek ve Dayanışma GünüMay Day
19 May Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day Atatürk'ü Anma, Gençlik ve Spor BayramıCommemoration of the beginning of national liberation movement initiated in 1919 by Atatürk's landing in Samsun. Dedicated to the youth.
15 July Democracy and National Unity Day Demokrasi ve Millî Birlik GünüCommemoration of the national unity against the coup d'état attempt for democracy in 2016.
30 August Victory Day Zafer BayramıCommemoration of the victory at the final battle in Dumlupınar ending the Turkish Independence War in 1922, dedicated to the armed forces.
29 October Republic Day Cumhuriyet BayramıCommemoration of the proclamation of the republic in 1923. Also the halfday in the afternoon of previous day.
After the end of the Islamic month Ramadan. [a] Ramadan Feast Ramazan BayramıReligious holiday for 3 days. Also the halfday in the afternoon of previous day.
Begins on the 10th day of the Islamic month Dhu'l-Hijjah. [a] Sacrifice Feast Kurban BayramıReligious holiday for 4 days in hajj period. Also the halfday in the afternoon of previous day.

Former holidays

DateEnglish nameLocal nameRemarks
27 May Freedom and Constitution Day Hürriyet ve Anayasa BayramıCommemoration of the 1960 coup d'état. Observed between 1963 and 1981.
24 July İyd-i Millî İyd-i MillîCelebration of Second Constitutional Era. Observed between 1909 and 1934.

Minority holidays

In May 2021, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced a new Human Rights Action Plan. According to the plan "public and private sector staff and students will be allowed to take leave for the religious holidays that they observe, regardless of their faith." [2] [3] [4]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Since 1 yr. equals to 354 days 8 hr. and 48 min. in the Islamic calendar, the dates of Islamic feasts shift each year with respect to the Gregorian calendar.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holiday</span> Festive day set aside by custom or by law

A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. Public holidays are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are often also observed as public holidays in religious majority countries. Some religious holidays, such as Christmas, have become secularised by part or all of those who observe them. In addition to secularisation, many holidays have become commercialised due to the growth of industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nowruz</span> Iranian New Year marking the March equinox

Nowruz is the Iranian New Year or Persian New Year. Historically, it has been observed by Persians and other Iranian peoples, but is now celebrated by many ethnicities worldwide. It is a festival based on the Northern Hemisphere spring equinox, which marks the first day of a new year on the Solar Hijri calendar; it usually coincides with a date between 19 March and 22 March on the Gregorian calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia</span>

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion based on firm Sharia law. Non-Muslims must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination and arrest. While no law requires all citizens to be Muslim, non-Muslim foreigners attempting to acquire Saudi Arabian nationality must convert to Islam. Children born to Muslim fathers are by law deemed Muslim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recep Tayyip Erdoğan</span> President of Turkey since 2014

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which he co-founded in 2001. He also served as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public holidays in the United States</span> Holidays in the United States of America

In the United States, public holidays are set by federal, state, and local governments and are often observed by closing government offices or giving government employees paid time off. The federal government does not require private businesses to close or offer paid time off, as is the case for most state and local governments, so employers determine which holidays to observe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justice and Development Party (Turkey)</span> Conservative political party in Turkey

The Justice and Development Party, abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. It has been the ruling party of Turkey since 2002. Third-party sources often refer to the party as national conservative, social conservative, right-wing populist and as espousing neo-Ottomanism. The party is generally regarded as being right-wing on the political spectrum, although some sources have described it as far-right since 2011. It is one of the two major parties of contemporary Turkey along with the Republican People's Party (CHP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welfare Party</span> Islamist political party in Turkey

The Welfare Party was an Islamist political party in Turkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal, and Necmettin Erbakan in Ankara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties, National Order Party (MNP) and National Salvation Party (MSP), which were banned from politics. The RP participated in mayoral elections at that time and won in three cities Konya, Şanlıurfa, and Van. Their vote percentage was approximately 5%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public holidays in South Africa</span> Public holidays of the Republic of South Africa

A list of current public holidays in South Africa:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Turkey</span>

Islam is the most practiced religion in Turkey. Most Turkish Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. The established presence of Islam in the region that now constitutes modern Turkey dates back to the later half of the 11th century, when the Seljuks started expanding into eastern Anatolia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multi-party period of the Republic of Turkey</span> Period in the Republic of Turkey in which multiple parties are allowed (1945–present)

The multi-party period of the Republic of Turkey started in 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fethullah Gülen</span> Turkish scholar, theologian and dissident (1941–2024)

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen was a Turkish Muslim scholar, preacher, and leader of the Gülen movement who as of 2016 had millions of followers. Gülen was an influential neo-Ottomanist, Anatolian panethnicist, Islamic poet, writer, social critic, and activist–dissident developing a Nursian theological perspective that embraces democratic modernity. Gülen was a local state imam from 1959 to 1981 and he was a citizen of Turkey until his denaturalization by the Turkish government in 2017. Over the years, Gülen became a centrist political figure in Turkey prior to his being there as a fugitive. From 1999 until his death in 2024, Gülen lived in self-exile in the United States near Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bayram (Turkey)</span> Nationally-celebrated festival or holiday

Bayram is the Turkic word for a nationally-celebrated festival or holiday, applicable to both national and religious celebrations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secularism in Turkey</span> Separation of religious matters and state affairs in Turkey

In Turkey, secularism or laicism was first introduced with the 1928 amendment of the Constitution of 1924, which removed the provision declaring that the "Religion of the State is Islam", and with the later reforms of Turkey's first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which set the administrative and political requirements to create a modern, democratic, secular state, aligned with Kemalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Turkey</span>

While Turkey is officially a secular state, numerous surveys all show that Islam is the country's most common religion. Published data on the proportion of people in Turkey who follow Islam vary. Because the government registers everyone as Muslim at birth by default, the official statistics can be misleading. There are many people who follow other religions or do not adhere to any religion, but they are officially classified as 'Muslim' in official records unless they make a contrary claim. These records can be changed or even blanked out on the request of the citizen using a valid electronic signature to sign the electronic application. According to the state, 99.8% of the population is initially registered as Muslim. The remaining 0.2% are Christians and adherents of other officially recognised religions such as Judaism. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam. Most Turkish Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship in Turkey</span>

Censorship in Turkey is regulated by domestic and international legislation, the latter taking precedence over domestic law, according to Article 90 of the Constitution of Turkey.

The Gülen movement or Hizmet movement is an Islamist fraternal movement. It is a sub-sect of Sunni Islam based on a Nursian theological perspective as reflected in Fethullah Gülen's religious teachings. It is referred to by its members as the "Service" or "Community" and it originated in Turkey around the late 1950s. It is institutionalized in 180 countries through educational institutions as well as media outlets, finance companies, for-profit health clinics, and affiliated foundations that have a combined net worth in the range of 20-50 billion dollars as of 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Headscarf controversy in Turkey</span> Overview of Islamic scarf controversy in the Republic of Turkey

The headscarf controversy in Turkey was a 20th and early 21st century controversy about women wearing Islamic headscarves. The Republic of Turkey had been a secular state since the constitutional amendment of 1937. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk introduced the secularization of the state in the Turkish Constitution of 1924, alongside his reforms. Over 90% of Turkey's population is Muslim, and the suppression of hijab/headscarves and other prominent religious symbols in government institutions and public schools, led to heated controversy at times in Turkey. Specifically, it resulted in a clash between those favoring the secular principles of the state, such as the Turkish Armed Forces, and religious conservatives, including Islamists. In the early 21st century, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reversed this, and worked to "raise a pious generation" in Turkey.

Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, informally known as the Nation-State Bill or the Nationality Bill, is an Israeli Basic Law that specifies the country's significance to the Jewish people. It was passed by the Knesset—with 62 in favour, 55 against, and two abstentions—on 19 July 2018 and is largely symbolic and declarative in nature. The law outlines a number of roles and responsibilities by which Israel is bound in order to fulfill the purpose of serving as the Jews' nation-state. However, it was met with sharp backlash internationally and has been characterized as racist and undemocratic by some critics. After it was passed, several groups in the Jewish diaspora expressed concern that it was actively violating Israel's self-defined legal status as a "Jewish and democratic state" in exchange for adopting an exclusively Jewish identity. The European Union stated that the Nation-State Bill had complicated the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, while the Arab League, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Muslim World League condemned it as a manifestation of apartheid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turkish involvement in the Syrian civil war</span> Turkish invasion of Syria

Turkey's involvement in the Syrian civil war began diplomatically and later escalated militarily. Initially, Turkey condemned the Syrian government at the outbreak of civil unrest in Syria during the spring of 2011; the Turkish government's involvement gradually evolved into military assistance for the Free Syrian Army in July 2011, border clashes in 2012, and direct military interventions in 2016–17, in 2018, in 2019, 2020, and in 2022. The military operations have resulted in the Turkish occupation of northern Syria since August 2016.

Since 2016, the government of Turkey has conducted a series of purges, enabled by a state of emergency in reaction to the failed coup attempt on 15 July that year. The purges began with the arrest of Turkish Armed Forces personnel reportedly linked to the coup attempt but arrests were expanded to include other elements of the Turkish military, as well as civil servants and private citizens. These later actions reflected a power struggle between secularist and Islamist political elites in Turkey, affected people who were not active in nor aware of the coup, but who the government claimed were connected with the Gülen movement, an opposition group which the government blamed for the coup. Possession of books authored by Gülen was considered valid evidence of such a connection and cause for arrest.

References

  1. "2023 resmi tatilleri hangi güne denk geliyor? 2023 resmi tatil günleri…". TRT Haber (in Turkish). Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  2. "'New human rights plan for the people': Turkish leader". Anadolu Agency . Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  3. "Erdoğan unveils human rights plan for more democratic Turkey". Daily Sabah . 2 March 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  4. "İnsan Hakları Eylem Planı" (PDF). Retrieved 6 March 2021.