|
The International Organization of Turkic Culture TURKSOY awarded the Honour Medal of TURKSOY to Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan for his efforts to serve Turkic Culture. TURKSOY which has been pursuing its activities to do research on, develop, promote, and transmit Turkic culture to future generations is offering an honour medal to all those who greatly contribute to the culture, art and science of the Turkic world as a sign of recogntion of their efforts with a view to increasing their public notoriety. Within this framework, TURKSOY organized a panel on Prof. Dr. Turan YAZGAN who made unprecedented contributions to the Turkic world in the fields of education, culture and art and offered him the Honour Medal of TURKSOY. The ceremony was held in the presence of Mr. Ertugrul Gunay, the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey.
The award ceremony started with a short film recounting the life and work of Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan in favour of the Turkic world. Later on, the opening speeches of the ceremony were delivered by TURKSOY Secretary General Dusen Kaseinov and the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey Ertugrul Gunay. In his speech, TURKSOY Secretary General Dusen Kaseinov, expressed his happiness to have gathered for the Award Ceremony of the Honour Medal offered to Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan in the Headquarters of TURKSOY, the cultural home of the Turkic world.
Kaseinov also said: “After having announced this event, we received positive reactions from many people. Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan is a highly respected and appreciated person in the whole Turkic World. In fact, we all know that Mr. Yazgan does not need any award as he is already owning the Outstanding Service Award of the President of the Republic of Turkey along with hundreds of other certificates of merit. However, we wanted to once again express our gratitude to him on behalf of the whole Turkic World. I would like to thank the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey Ertugrul Gunay as well as all of you who are friends of the Turkic World for being here as a testimony of your appreciation of TURKSOY and admiration for Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan”.
The Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey Ertugrul Gunay who also made a speech on the occasion said that as this ceremony takes place on the day of the funeral ceremony of the Founding President of the TRNC Rauf Denktas, it is also an occasion to commemorate Denktas and added that both Rauf Denktas and Turan Yazgan are famous historical personalities who deserve being highly respected for their achievements.
The Minister Gunay who thanked TURKSOY along with all those who contributed to the organization of this event said: “Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan always stresses the importance of and need for more educational activities in the field of social sciences. Highschools which offer free education in Turkic language in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have opened Turkish language sections as well as sections for management and international relations. The Foundation of Research on the Turkic World has been teaching Turkish from Turkey to thousands of people and will continue doing so.”
The Chairman of the Foundation of Research on the Turkic World (Tdav) Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan who expressed his happiness to be handed over the Honour Medal of TURKSOY by the Secretary General of TURKSOY Mr. Dusen Kaseinov, also said: "We have never been racists. We have always relied on reason in all our endeavours. We have never relied on feelings". Prof. Dr. Yazgan who dedicated most of his efforts to the use of one common alphabet further said: "There is no language in the world which uses a second alphabet. Turkic People were divided and exploited through this duality of alphabets. The Turkic World should unite through one single alphabet ".
The programme was set forth with the panel entitled “Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan and the Turkic World”. The panel was chaired by Prof. Dr. Orhan Kavuncu and featured contributions by Servet Kabaklı – journalist-author/Chairman of the Foundation of Turkish literature, Dr. Ilyas Topsakal- Teaching at the Istanbul University/ Director General of Research at Tdav and Yakup Deliomeroglu- Chairman of the Eurasian Authors’ Union.
|