In general Turkish history, it is known that
the period of the Gok-Turks had a central identity by being the leader to the Turkish
nation. Until our days from the 6th century it was established, the entire Turkish world
protected its deep traces. The Asian Huns widely and much conscious way if it may be said
so, unified under their control the Asian Turks, even during the time when the Gok-Turks
Kingdom has lost the density of the Turkish people in the western borders of Middle Asia,
and when they got weakened politically, they had an important role in the spread of the
Turkish people. The Kingdoms of Uygur, Turgiş, Karluk, and Khazar were the continuation
of the Kingdom of Gok-Turks.
The clans of Uz, Peçenek, Kurnan-Kipçak were the
groups that were separated from them. The Kirneks in the region of Up Irtiş, one of the
Kipçak group, the Kanglis in the north of the Lake Aral, one of the Karluks, the Yagmas
in the region of north-east of Kaşgar, Özkent, Talas, and Çu, one of the Karluks again,
the Çigils in the region of the south-west of the Lake İsik, and then in the region of
Talas,Kaşgar and Transoxiana, again one of the Karluks, the Tohsils in the region of the
Lake İsik and Çu, the Kalaçs in the Tuharistan, Ghazna, Belh, Sicistan, and north
India, the Argus in the Kaşgar-Balasagun-Talas-Fergane, the groups of Argu, Yabaku Çomul,
Igrak, Çaruk, Ezgiş, Kençek were the Turkish tribes dependent on the Gok-Turks.
Moreover, the Indian Turkish States, Ghanavids, and Harezmsahs by the Karluks, Yagma, Çigil
and Tohsi; the Big Seljuk Empire, the Seljuk States, the Atabegs, the Turkoman
Principalities, the Anatolian Principalities, the States of Kara and Ak-Koyunlus, the
Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic by the Oguzs, become the administrative,
structural, ethnical-social, military and cultural inheritors of the Kingdom of Gok-Turks.
Monuments of Orkhuns
The first
Turkish text, in which the name of Turk and the Turkish Nation is mentioned… First
Turkish history… The history written on stones… The Turkish statesmen's explanation to
the nation, the accounting for the nation… The mutual duties of the state and the nation…
The great document of the Turkish system, Turkish traditions, Turkish civilization, and
the high Turkish culture… The principles of the Turkish military genius, Turkish
military art… The divine altitude of the Turkish honour… The great example of the
Turkish sacrifice and virtue… The celestial picture of the Turkish social life… The
first masterpiece of the Turkish literature… The unreachable masterpiece of the art of
Turkish rhetoric… The royal and splendour style of rhetoric… The amazing sample of the
pure and sharp style… The basic book of the Turkish nationalism… A work of art that
will made a tribe to a nation… The light that illuminated a national direction through
centuries… The blessed source of the Turkish language… The first but unusually
productive sample of the Turkish written language… The proof that indicates the
beginning of the Turkish written language in the first centuries of the birth of Christ….
The document that brings the establishment of the Turkish army to at least 1250 years
further… The work of art that becomes the greatest glory of Turks… The most meaningful
tomb stone by means of the social contents of the humanity… The 1250 years ago Turkish
warning about China, which is maybe the biggest issue of the today's world…etc.
(Muharrem Ergin).
Those explanations come at first when it is desired
to describe the Orkhun Inscriptions. The Orkhun Inscriptions are the products of the
period of Khan Bilge in the Kingdom of Gok-Turks. The monument of Kül Tegin that was
built by the Khan Bilge in the name of his brother in 732, and the second one, the
monument of Khan Bilge was built by his son in 735, one year later from his death. The
third monument, the monument of Tonyukuk, was built by himself in the years of 720 and
725. There are some other inscriptions written in the Orkhun calligraphy near Orkhun. Only
six pieces of them are well known, but only three pieces are the biggest and the most
important ones.
The Orkhun monument is
called also the Orkhun Inscriptions. These are monument certainly, but those monuments are
indisputably inscription materialistically and spiritually. They have an identity of
monuments for their contents and grand edifices.
Thus, the best title
that describes those is the Orkhun Monuments. The monument of Kül Tegin, is the eternal
description of Khan Bilge's feelings toward his brother: his feelings of praise to the
hero brother who had a primary role in the become strong of the state and his becoming the
khan, and the feelings of terrible sorrow for which he had the mood of artistically
enthusiasm. Khan Bilge directed personally the preparation of the work of art under this
mood and by being from beginning to end on the construction of the monument. The celestial
and blessed speech was written from his mouth, he is talking in the monument, he is the
author.
In the Chinese
inscription of the monument, the Turk-China friendship, the Turkish Empire, and Kül Tegin
is praised and introduced. With the arrangement of the expressions like: "We built a
marvellous monument in order to relive everyday the magnificence of their common success
in the unlimited and inconsiderate memories of the coming generations, in order that
everyone living in the distant and living nearby learn about this" and "Who can
say that those men could not be forgotten forever? Now it is built a monument high as a
mountain to announce forever the lucky news", the dates are recorded.
During the
construction of the monument and the mausoleum, the Turkish and Chinese artists worked
together. The inscriptions on the monument are written by Yollig Tegin, the nephew of Khan
Bilge and Kül Tegin. The Khan Bilge's Monument was constructed by his son in 735, one
year after his death in 734. In this monument, Khan Bilge is talking. Meanwhile in this
monument, the events after the death of Kül Tegin are added. The Tonyukuk Monument is
constructed during his old ages by Tonyukuk himself, the one that joined to the rebellion
of Khan Ilteriş, the big Turkish statesman and the supreme commander who was the biggest
helper of the state administration until the period of Khan Bilge. In this monument,
Tonyukuk is talking, he made this monument.
The Orkhun Monuments' coming into light is one of the biggest discoveries of humanity.
It is a real
national worship for a Turk to read with great pleasure the Orkhun Monuments, in the old
Turkish country thousands of kilometres away from today's Turkey, and those blessed stones
which rise as a Turkish index finger in today's Mongolia, to think deeply on every word,
to purify the spirit by looking at the pictures with the pious reverence… Muharrem
Ergin.
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