The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) has opened the permanent Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk exhibition, prepared jointly with the International Organization of Turkic Culture and Heritage and the Turkic World Foundation, to visitors in Kyrgyzstan.
The exhibition is located in a special section of the Kurmanjan Datka Nomadic Civilization Center, near the city of Cholpon-Ata in the Issyk-Kul region.
The exhibition showcases Mahmud al-Kashgari’s legacy
The exhibition features Mahmud al-Kashgari’s legacy, his Turkic-centered world map, and archaeological artifacts and finds from the Karakhanid period, which ruled parts of Central Asia.
Soyuzbek Nady rbekov, First Deputy Minister of Culture, Information and Youth Policy of Kyrgyzstan; Türkiye’s Ambassador to Bishkek, Mekin Mustafa Kemal Ökem; Prof. Dr. Aktotı Raimkulova, president of the International Organization of Turkic Culture and Heritage; TİKA President Abdullah Eren; and Osman Özsoy, vice president of the Board of Trustees of the Turkic World Foundation, attended the opening. Representatives of institutions, academics and invited guests also took part in the ceremony.
Nady rbekov said the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk contains valuable information about the language, history, geography, traditions and culture of the 11th-century Turkic world. Saying that the exhibition’s opening in the land where Mahmud al-Kashgari was born carries special significance, Nady rbekov expressed his belief that the project would contribute to promoting the Turkic world.
Nady rbekov said the project brought together modern technologies and historical heritage, and thanked the institutions that contributed to it.
Emphasis on a shared historical and cultural heritage
Ambassador Ökem said it was meaningful to make the exhibition permanent in this geography, which bears the traces of Mahmud al-Kashgari, one of the important figures of the Karakhanid heritage. Ökem noted that the project was significant for making the shared historical and cultural heritage more visible and passing it on to future generations.
Prof. Dr. Aktotı Raimkulova, president of the International Organization of Turkic Culture and Heritage, described the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk as a unique window into the cultural and linguistic world of Turkic peoples. Raimkulova said she was pleased that the exhibition’s journey, which began in Bishkek in 2024, had become a permanent display in Issyk-Kul.
TİKA President Abdullah Eren said the work could not be regarded merely as a dictionary. Eren said the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk was one of the primary sources reflecting the worldview of the Turks of that period regarding the world, nature and life, adding that preserving the past was one way to build a common future.
Osman Özsoy, vice president of the Board of Trustees of the Turkic World Foundation, conveyed greetings from Prof. Dr. Nabi Avcı, chairman of the Board of Trustees. Özsoy recalled Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov’s wife Aygül Japarova’s wish for the exhibition to be permanently presented to visitors in Issyk-Kul and said the project had been implemented through cooperation among the relevant institutions.
The exhibition, which offers visitors the opportunity to learn about Turkic cultural heritage through words and objects dating from the 11th century to the present, has previously been displayed for art enthusiasts in Bishkek, Astana and Turkistan.
