After the declaration of the Republic the great tour
of the nation, named as The Autumn Tour, was started from Dumlupinar. After arriving
to Bursa from there, Atatürk went to Mudanya and from there sailed to Black Sea
via Bosporus on board the Hamidiye cruiser. On 15 September 1924 arrived to
Trabzon at 11:00 p.m. Atatürk, his wife Latife and his close friends received a
warm welcome from the people of Trabzon. Atatürk directly arrived to
Municipality. In the afternoon they went to the lodge at Soguksu to rest. The
lodge was built in 1913, after the declaration of the Republic the ownership
was passed to the Private administration. It was a four-storey building with
the basement. The large room on the third floor was the bedroom of Atatürk. The
same night the mayor of Trabzon Hüseyin Kazazoglu gave a dinner in honour of
Atatürk and made a speech. Atatürk, in reply to this speech, said; “Gentlemen,
I have seen almost all the people of Trabzon in a mass of sincerity. I have
seen tears in the eyes of women, children and elders. What an emotion, what
compassion, and what nobility this is”. And thanked the people of
Trabzon.
The next day, after visiting the schools, the hospital and the yarn factory, in
the morning of 17 September 1924 he left Trabzon for Rize.
After Trabzon’s visit of Atatürk, the lodge belonging to the Private
Administration was purchased by the Trabzon municipality and presented to
Atatürk as a gift. A delegate of Trabzon arrived to Ankara and delivered the
deed and keys of the lodge to Atatürk. On 27 November 1930, when Atatürk
arrived from Samsun to Trabzon with the Ege steamboat, spent the night in this
lodge, and returned to Istanbul. The lodge was named as Atatürk Lodge by
Trabzon people and they took pride with it.
Atatürk’s third and last arrival to Trabzon encounters to 10 June 1937. After
arriving from Istanbul to Trabzon with Ege steamboat, Atatürk directly went to
his lodge and spent two nights in there. On his last visit, he said: “the real
estates and properties becomes a burden to me, I will be relieved when I donate
these to my people. The wealth of a person should be within his own morale. I
would like to give many more things to my great people” and donated all his
belongings to the Treasury in the presence of the notary public. On 12 June
1937 morning Atatürk returned to Istanbul from Trabzon.
After Atatürk’s death, the Trabzon municipality decided to open the Atatürk
Lodge to the public as a museum. Atatürk's belongings and photographs exhibited
in the museum. Today, in the entrance of the lodge, the full speech, made by
Atatürk at his first arrival to Trabzon, is hanged. The small room on the right
was set with various photographs taken during his life and during his visits to
Trabzon. In the next room it can be seen the armchairs and the sofas that
Atatürk rested. On one of them, the following sentence was written on a plate:
“In here Atatürk signed the document stating the donation of all his belongings
to the people”. The other room was furnished as the dining room of Atatürk.
In the third floor of the lodge Atatürk’s bedroom, bathroom, aide's rooms and
the study room can be seen. Today the lodge, with its large flower garden, is
one of the most beautiful houses of Trabzon and is open to visitors as the
Atatürk Museum under the management of the Trabzon municipality.
- March 07, 2018
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