Your Excellencies the Ministers,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

90 years ago, on this very day, representatives from all parts of Turkey, after having gone through a very long and exhaustive armed conflict, came together under the strong leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and declared the foundation of our Republic.

Dear Guests,

Our Republic has been crowned with democratic achievements along with economic advances. Republic of Turkey, today, is a source of inspiration for developing countries as a democratic state, where rule of law is respected and economy has boomed thanks to its qualified and young labor force as well as vibrant entrepreneurs.

Libyan people have successfully come out of a challenging struggle. Libyans deserve democracy, independence, justice, peace and prosperity. It is a great pleasure for us to witness that our Libyan brothers and sisters have been able to take significant steps in such a short time, towards ensuring these ends making the necessary means available such as free elections and independent media. It should be kept in mind, however that, it is always the social and cultural fabric as well as economic institutions of societies that determine the duration in which these objectives can be reached. In any case it takes time. And I would like to remind our Libyan brothers and sisters that Turkish people and the Republic of Turkey, will always stand by them.

We will keep on working together to strengthen and enhance our relations which bring us together more closely and which have been built upon our friendship, throughout the history. Turkey is determined to continue sharing its experience, knowledge and expertise with Libya based on Libyan needs and priorities with a view to building a modern society and democratic state.

I would like to express once again my gratitude to all of our Libyan friends, distinguished members of Diplomatic Corps and our citizens living in Libya, who are with us tonight and share our joy in our National Day.