The world community celebrates World Day of Turkic Languages for the first time
On December 15, the international community celebrates World Day of Turkic Languages for the first time.
The corresponding decision was made at the UNESCO General Conference held in Samarkand in November, News.Az reports.
The choice of date is symbolic and deeply meaningful, as on December 15, 1983, Danish linguist Wilhelm Thomsen announced the successful decipherment of the Orkhon inscriptions, one of the oldest known written sources. The inscriptions were created by ancient Turks in the Orkhon Valley, in what is now Mongolia, in the 8th century CE and discovered in 1889.
Thomsen's achievement provided invaluable insight into the linguistic tradition that today links dozens of communities across Eurasia.
Languages belonging to the Turkic language family, such as Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Turkmen, and Uzbek, are native to over 200 million people across a territory of approximately 12 million square kilometers. A rich documentary heritage in Turkic languages, as well as vibrant oral traditions, is shared by more than 10 countries.
The initiative to celebrate the World Day was put forward by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan, and was supported by 21 countries.
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