European University of Lefke (EUL) Faculty of Arts & Sciences Department of Turkish Language and Literature and EUL Turkology Club organized a conference themed “Turkish World and Middle Asia”. Retired Academician of Hacettepe University Prof. Dr. Bilge Ercilasun and Retired Academician of Gazi University and formed president of Turkish Language Association Prof. Dr. Ahmet Bican Ercilasun attended the conference which was conducted with two sessions as speakers.

In the conference which started with the opening speech of Prof. Dr. Saadettin Yıldız, Dean of EUL’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences, thanked EUL administration for organizing such scientific events and for creating the opportunity for the students to meet with academicians who are experts in the field.

Prof. Dr. Bilge Ercilasun conveyed detailed information on “Near Feature in the Turkish Novel after 2000” in the first session. Ercilasun said that, the concept of “Near Future” refers to the reflections of, Ottoman Empire in the 19th century which was filled with many historical events and wars, and the period which covers the term until the establishment of Turkish Republic to the Turkish Novel and underlined that these novels were written in the light of historical documents and they are classified as documentary novels, historical novels and biographic novels.

Prof. Dr. Ahmet BicanErcilasun conveyed detailed information on “Turkish World and Middle Asia” in the first session. Ercilasun described the History of Turkish world geography and the main lines of today’s borders and listed the most important political events with a chronological order. In his presentation Ercilasun explained the following subjects with tangible examples; the Turkish history before and after Christ; the pre-Islamic Turk States (Hun, Caspian, Göktürk et al.); Turk States after the Islam (Karahanli, Bulgarian, Seljuk, Ilhanli, Akkoyunlu, Karakoyunlu, Ottoman, Mamluks, Safavid etc.), the historical, political, and cultural impacts of Turk States and the reflection of these impacts to the present. After his first presentation, Ercilasun gave detailed information about the current Turkish world and the independent Turkish Republics after the USSR and introduced Autonomous (actually federative) Turkish lands of Russia. Ercilasun shared his thoughts on the past, present and future of Turkish world with the students.

In the second session, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Bican Ercilasun gave brief information about Oghuz Kağan’s personality in “Oğuznamelere Dair”, his place in Turkish mythology, his position in the Turkish cosmogonic epics, the historical geography of the Oghuz tribes, 24 Oghuz tribes and the current representatives of these tribes. Ercilasun further gave some information about the manuscript which includes old Turkish provervs and is known as Emsal-i Türkân or Emsal-i Muhammedali whose only copy is based in Saint Petersburg (Russia), Dede Qorqut Book whose two original copies are based in Dresden (Germany) and Vatican (Italy).

At the end of the conference, which attracted intense participation, Prof. Dr. Saadettin Yıldız, Dean of EUL’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences, presented certificate of appreciation to the speakers.