Today, on April 21, The Turkic Academy, in cooperation with Hacettepe University, held the second event in a series of scientific and cultural meetings dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the First Turkological Congress, which took place in Baku in 1926.
The event formed part of a three-day program in Ankara united by a common academic theme - reflecting on the historical legacy of the Congress and the mission of the Turkic Academy in the context of its contemporary development. As part of the program, the Turkic Academy presented an exhibition of archival photographs illustrating the historical context of the 1926 Congress, along with scholarly publications prepared within the framework of international research projects.
The event was attended by President of the Turkic Academy, Prof. Dr. Shahin Mustafayev, Rector of Hacettepe University Mehmet Cahit Güran, as well as leading scholars, researchers, and representatives of Türkiye’s academic community.
In his opening remarks, Shahin Mustafayev emphasized the significance of the First Turkological Congress as a major intellectual platform that laid the foundations for scholarly dialogue across the Turkic world.
“For the Turkic Academy, a key priority is to preserve and further develop this legacy, strengthen scientific solidarity, and foster a shared academic space for future generations of researchers,” he noted.
During the discussions, particular attention was drawn to the coordinating role of the Turkic Academy in advancing a common Turkic scientific space. In 2023, under the Academy’s coordination, an expert commission on the Common Turkic Alphabet was established, and in September 2024, at its third meeting, the Common Turkic Alphabet was officially adopted.
As a first practical application of the Common Turkic Alphabet, the Turkic Academy prepared pilot editions of The Book of Words by Abay Kunanbayev and The White Ship by Chinghiz Aitmatov, which became the first texts published using this system.
The First Turkological Congress also placed special emphasis on the development of a shared scientific terminology, including the need for specialized terminological dictionaries. A century later, this agenda is being actively advanced in the work of the Turkic Academy.
In particular, within the framework of a project on developing terminological dictionaries for Turkic languages, dictionaries in the fields of economics, military studies, ecology, linguistics, and medicine have already been published. Work is currently underway on new editions, including dictionaries in information technology, artificial intelligence, as well as international relations and diplomacy.
These initiatives are viewed as a continuation of the scholarly tradition established at the 1926 Congress and reflect the ongoing development of academic cooperation across the Turkic world.
The Turkic Academy’s series of events in Ankara will continue and conclude with a final meeting at Hacı Bayram Veli University.
