Turkey's government marked the 100th anniversary of the creation of the modern, secular republic from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire on Sunday with a firework and drone show in Istanbul as well as a procession of 100 hundred navy ships but little else in the way of pageantry.
The rather muted celebration of the centennial, which included no gala reception, came months after a devastating earthquake that killed 50,000 people and coincided with the Israeli-Hamas war that has roiled the Middle East.
