Turkish Marches and Anthems - Istiklal Marsi History

İstiklal Marşı - Independence March, Turkish National Anthem

İstiklal marşı, meaning the 'Independence March', is  the Turkish national anthem. It was written by Mehmet Akif Ersoy and officially adopted on March 12, 1921. A nationwide competition was held for selecting the national anthem of the new born Turkish Republic after the Turkish war of independence. A total of 724 poems were submitted to this event and the 10-verse poem written by Mehmet Akif Ersoy was adopted unanimously by the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

Another competition was held to select the most suitable musical composition for the national anthem and 24 composers submitted their works for this event. The council, in 1924, adopted the music composed by Ali Rıfat Çağatay and this music was used until 1930 to sing the words of the national anthem. After this date, the music of the national anthem was changed with the music composed by Osman Zeki Üngör, conductor of the Presidential Symphonic Orchestra. Since then, the words of the Turkish National Anthem have been sung with this musical composition. Out of the 10 verses, only the first two are sung with music. You can download the mp3 version of the Turkish National Anthem, Independence March (Istiklal Marsi) here:

Download İstiklal Marşı mp3