SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan / ISTANBUL

An event on the newly proclaimed World Turkic Language Day took place on Tuesday in the historic Uzbek city of Samarkand.

Samarkand is where UNESCO on Monday proclaimed the adoption of Dec. 15 as World Turkic Language Day during its ongoing 43rd General Conference.

The event, organized by the Turkish Culture and Heritage Foundation, was attended by officials of Turkic states, representatives of the co-sponsoring countries, and numerous guests, including Kursad Zorlu, deputy chair in charge of relations with Turkic states of Türkiye's Justice and Development (AK) Party, Türkiye's envoy to UNESCO Gulnur Aybet, and Aktoty Raimkulova, head of the Turkish Culture and Heritage Foundation.

"With this historic decision, it has been reaffirmed that the Turkish language is a living world language, with all its branches, in diverse geographies," Zorlu said during the event.

"Because throughout thousands of years of history, the Turkish language has transcended not only words but also the memory, emotion, and thought of a nation,” he continued.

"The Turkish language is a common heartbeat that makes us who we are, uniting us in the same sentiment even if we do not know each other.”

Languages such as Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen, Azerbaijani Turkish, Tatar, and many others spoken across such a vast geography "are like branches of a single language tree born from the same root,” he noted.

Tens of millions of citizens living in different countries around the world have also become a diaspora force of the Turkic language family, Zorlu added.

The competition between languages ​​in the world today is actually a struggle for cultural visibility, he noted, saying: "From this perspective, the power of the Turkic language lies not only in its past but also in its potential to shape the future.

"It is our shared responsibility to keep Turkish alive and strengthen it in science, art, and the digital world; to make it a universal language of science and civilization."

Türkiye stands firmly behind all efforts to establish a common language of communication, he highlighted.

UNESCO's decision is "the shared success and vision of all Turkic states on the path to language unity," Zorlu said, adding: "Now is the time to carry December 15 to common and international platforms."