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When Atatürk visited Alanya
The following is a story about President Atatürk’s visit to Alanya in 1935. The narrative is taken from Hasim Yetkins book: Alanya – from yesterday to today.

When Atatürk visited Aspendos in 1930 he received an invitation from Alanya to visit the town and he promised the inhabitants that he would do so in the near future. In his spare time Atatürk often travelled around the country and he was sailing in the Mediterranean in 1933 on the ship Gülcemal when he received a telegram from Alaiye, which was the town’s name at that time. However the town name was written as Alanya, due to a mistake in the interpretation of the Morse code. After looking at the telegram Atatürk asked: “Can I change the name to Alanya? In fact, that is a good name let it be Alanya from now on.”