Turkish alphabet reform (1928)

The Arabic script poorly represented Turkish vowels and was hard to learn. The First Turkological Congress, held in Baku in 1926, had recommended the Latin alphabet for the Turkic peoples, and Azerbaijan had taken this path before Türkiye.

In the summer of 1928 a commission prepared the new alphabet. On 9 August 1928 Mustafa Kemal presented the new letters to the public in Sarayburnu Park in Istanbul and toured the country teaching at the blackboard, earning the title "Head Teacher". Law No. 1353 was passed on 1 November 1928.

In the Nation's Schools opened from 1929, millions of adults learned to read and write. Every year the week beginning on 1 November is marked in Türkiye as the anniversary of the alphabet reform.