Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli issued a written message for Turkish Language Day on September 26. “Turkish is a sacred trust left to us by our ancestors. Loving it, protecting it, developing it and passing it on to future generations in all its richness is a national duty,” he said.
Bahçeli warned that the weakening of Turkish and its loss of strength against other languages over time “should not be seen merely as a change in the field of language,” saying it could also damage cultural belonging, national consciousness and shared identity.
Describing language as a living entity that strengthens the sense of belonging among members of the nation and cements social unity, Bahçeli said developing Turkish’s own resources against the excessive influx of foreign concepts and words is a shared responsibility of the state and the nation.
Recalling a cultural heritage stretching from the Orkhon Inscriptions to Mahmud al-Kashgari, Ahmed Yasawi, Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey, Yunus Emre and Ali-Shir Nava’i, Bahçeli said: “Protecting Turkish is not only about embracing the past but also about securing our future.”
Turkish Language Day marks the anniversary of the First Turkish Language Congress, convened under Atatürk’s leadership on September 26, 1932.