Iconic Turkic world monument replica erected in Turkey

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - A replica of a 1,300-year-old Turkic inscription in present-day Mongolia, which reflects the historical events that occurred during the Gokturk era in Central Asia, was erected on Monday in a park in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Tonyukuk, an essential figure in Turkic history, was a supreme commander and adviser of four successive Gokturk khagans, while the Tonyukuk inscriptions from the eighth century are considered as the oldest written attestations of the Turkic language family.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of a Turkic world Tonyukuk park in Ankara's Altindag district, Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop said that 2021 -- announced earlier as Turkish language year -- is an opportunity year to commemorate the esteemed personalities and scientific, artistic and cultural activities of the ancestors who left behind the language, homeland, and Turkic identity as a legacy.

"Just as the national cultural heritage was conveyed to us, it is also a national duty to transfer it to our children and youth," he said.

Sentop also underlined that the events devoted to celebrating the 1,300th anniversary of Tonyukuk inscriptions were on Turkey's proposal included on the UNESCO events list.

Emphasizing that the Bilge Tonyukuk monuments as part of the Orkhon inscriptions are precious for the Turkic nations, Sentop said the messages in the inscription contained "exemplary determinations and evaluations" about current days.

He also stressed that the inscriptions contain apothegmatic examples of how the nations that lost their unity, weaken their loyalty to their state and their nation, were fooled into the political games of other nations and states and became alienated from their own culture and language, as well as eventually lost their independence and become "slaves of other nations."

Darhan Qydyrali, head of the International Turkic Academy, speaking at the ceremony, thanked the Turkish government for paying significant attention to the common history, as well as opening a park with a monument reflecting a 1,300-year-old Turkic inscription.

He said that when many nations didn't have even their alphabet, Tonyukuk inscriptions in the Turkic language were written on the stones in the Gokturk era.

"Tonyukuk is an eternal symbol of wisdom and Turkic language in the glorious history of Turkic nations," Qydyrali said, adding that the monument is "the first one" erected with reference to Turcs.

He said that the Turkic language "transcending centuries and continents" is a "noble asset" nowadays that unites the 350-million-Turkic nation.

"Our ancestor Bilge Tonyukuk, who engraved Turkic language on the stones, glorified our mother tongue," he said.

Turkey's Deputy Foreign Minister Yavuz Selim Kiran, Ankara Governor Vasip Sahin, Altindag Mayor Asim Balci, ambassadors and bureaucrats also attended the ceremony.