National Identity in Orkhon Inscriptions

Abstract

The Orkhon runic inscriptions are to be the oldest written texts of Turkic, thus being the oldest native sources of Turkic language, history and culture. Contents of the inscriptions are noteworthy with the sensitivity on national identity. Kul Tigin and especially Bilge Qagan, owners of the two of the three inscriptions, astonish even readers of the modern age with their approaches to the reasons of decline of the state and the efforts to establish a new state. Their essential evaluation for statesmen is to have the necessary merit. They insist on some heavenly features; and those features are accepted the first and essential condition to ascend the throne. The very repetition of the phrase Tengri teg tengride bolmak (to be created on the heaven like God) is connected with this understanding. The inscriptions tells also on on the groups cooperating with the enemy, as well as the enemy itself. China, the external enemy, should not be seen as only China; it is symbol of all hostile nations or states. The advices are for all of them in the person of China. The warning for not to be deceived by the soft silks and sweet women of China is indeed a continuous warning for traps and tricks of enemies. The stress on living in the Otuken country and not to abandon there is also very significant, this indicates that the Turks had in those times the idea of homeland and political center. The message to keep and consolidate the homeland and capital city ideas is a noteworthy record as an expression of the connection between land and homeland and homeland and nation. Briefly, the inscriptions are full of mottos showing the ways to keep existence of the Turks. Each of those mottos are to be considered as fruits of the sensitivity on national identity.