Mr. President of the International Turkic Academy,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honour for me to speak today from the high rostrum of UNESCO at an international forum that brought together representatives of governments and academia from the Turkic Academy states, international organizations and the diplomatic corps, as well as widely-known turkologists from all over the world.
UNESCO Headquarters is indeed a place that attracts advanced minds and enables them to take important and responsible decisions in the field of education, science and culture.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres rightly noted that UNESCO means a huge range of issues that the organization deals with: from protecting the oceans to genetic engineering, from preserving cultural heritage to countering intolerance.
Many nations today are striving to study the roots of their history, to understand the origins of spirituality, their ethnic involvement in the world culture. In this context, UNESCO pays special attention not only to the research, but also to the preservation of the vast heritage left by ancient civilizations to the present generations.
Today, we are witnessing an important historical event – the discovery of a unique monument and inscriptions dedicated to Elterish Qutlug Qaghan, and we celebrate the success of the scientific archaeological expedition that discovered this oldest written monument of the Turkic era with the earliest known ethnopolitonym “Turk”.
Historians have previously proved that the Turkic states in Central Asia and Eurasia in the early Middle Ages had two types of Old Turkic writing – runic and so called Old Uyghur on the basis of the Sogdian script that appeared in that territory earlier, which, in turn, dates back to the Aramaic script.
The Turks were participants of many landmark events and experienced difficult trials. However, they managed to preserve their inherent identity. The ancient civilization of Sumer, the culture of the Scythians and their art, the heritage of the Huns are associated with the Turks. Along with other peoples, they were the founders of ancient civilizations, who enriched humanity with their achievements. The Turks made a considerable contribution to the development of sciences and manufacture – the invention of iron, printing and other achievements of humankind.
The ancient Turks created their own pastoral culture, cattle breeding, which was preceded by a long period of domestication and initial breeding of livestock.
The beginning of the domestication of horses about 5.5 thousand years ago is associated with the Botai culture that existed in the territory of present-day Northern Kazakhstan and those Botai people mastered riding for the purpose of hunting wild horses.
The domestication of horses has profoundly influenced the course of human history, significantly increasing the pace of development of new lands and changing the face of agriculture and military art.
As noted by the famous Kazakh archaeologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences Zeynolla Samashev, who discovered the “Warrior in Golden Armor” four years ago, “it is through archaeological research that we can study ancient periods of history. It sheds light on its secrets”.
Excavations led by famous archaeologists of Kazakhstan, which began in 2016 in the Tarbagatai Mountains at the burial ground of Yeleke Sazy, helped to find and study in detail about three thousand golden decorations. According to Zeynolla Samashev, “all findings belong to the 8th-7th centuries BC, that is, to the Saka period, and once again confirm that the “steppe civilization” of those times was highly developed and used advanced technologies”.
In the Turkic era, the steppe civilization was also distinguished by a wide variety of beliefs and religions. Zoroastrianism, being one of the oldest world religions, directly or indirectly influenced the development of the Turkic civilization. The ideas and values first proclaimed in Zoroastrianism have fundamentally influenced other world religions – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism and others.
Since the Turkic Khaganate at the end of the 6th century bordered in the west with Byzantium, in the south with Persia and even India, and in the east with China, it is natural that the historical vicissitudes of those countries during that period were interconnected with the fate of the Turkic power.
There are plenty of artefacts and written evidence of interaction over thousands of years between Turkic tribes and the Chinese state.
Moreover, in the Middle Ages, a large Turkic ethnic component was actively introduced into the history of the Hindustan Peninsula in the form of ruling dynasties and their immediate surroundings, as well as artisans, scholars, artists, people of culture, merchants, and political exiles from Central Asia. It is for a good reason that some researchers place particular emphasis on the proximity, and in many respects the identical nature, of the cultural and civilizational elements of Central Asia and the northern regions of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, inherited from the Turkic period.
This means that the Asian region was shaped by diverse and intertwined ancient cultures and religions, and the Turkic, Chinese, Indian, Persian and other civilizations, which had an impact on the course and development of the world history, originated in this part of the world.
Let me quote world-renowned historian Lev Gumilyov, who reflected on the future of Turkic culture and said the following “The Turks are a powerful, potent people. If in the future they merge with other peoples, whatever language they speak, they will remain in the future as catalysts of historical processes.”
Distinguished participants,
All the above historical facts are only a small portion of the evidence of the evolution of the Asian continent and its enormous influence on the rest of the world: from the dawn of ancient civilizations to the modern development, as a connection between the past and the present, with an aspiration for the future of Asia.
I would also like to quote President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who said the following at the Sixth CICA Summit in Astana this October, “Asia has made a tremendous contribution to the development of human civilization. For several millennia, the states of our macro-region have been the main driving force behind the social, cultural, and technological progress of all humanity. The forecast that the 21st century would be Asian is now a reality.”
Indeed, today, by many global indicators, Asia is rapidly moving toward leadership positions in almost all areas of life.
The region that has historically been the cradle of the world's greatest civilizations nurturing rich cultural and spiritual heritage, traditions and worldviews, has every chance of becoming a global centre of attraction, primarily of human resources, in the very near future.
And in this regard, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, which brings together 28 states covering over 90% of the Asian continent, promotes and facilitates dialogue among civilizations, cultures and religions across the region. One of the five broad dimensions that the Organization encompasses is the human dimension. It includes encouraging the dissemination of information about peoples and different cultures in the CICA area to promote tolerance and understanding, exchanges between research and educational institutions, and joint archaeological expeditions to discover shared cultural treasures.
Furthermore, CICA cooperates closely with the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States (TURKPA), an Observer Organization in CICA since 2012. To date, this cooperation has successfully translated into a number of important and significant bilateral and multilateral formats of interaction. As partners, we mutually participate in high-level events – CICA Summits or TURKPA Plenary Sessions – and work together at other international venues. I would also like to note that this year, TURKPA has participated in the CICA Youth Council meeting and has shared the experience of young parliamentarians and their contribution to the development of youth policy in the Turkic-speaking states, thus demonstrating commitment to the goals and principles of CICA in advancing the human dimension.
Allow me to conclude by quoting a scientist and leading global strategy consultant Parag Khanna, who said, “The future is Asian,” and I would also like to add that the future belongs to a pragmatic Asia that draws on the great history of the past, values its present, and aspires to a bright future!
Thank you for your attention!
15 December 2022
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris
