Kyrgyz thinker Kasym Tynystanuulu's 125th birth anniversary marked with an international programme at TÜRKSOY in Ankara

An international commemoration and scholarly programme for the 125th birth anniversary of the Kyrgyz linguist, poet and educator Kasym Tynystanuulu was held at the TÜRKSOY General Secretariat in Ankara. It was titled "The Intellectual Awakening and Freedom Struggle of Turkestan". The programme opened with an exhibition of paintings devoted to the participants of the 1926 Baku Turkological Congress and to Turkestan intellectuals.

TÜRKSOY Deputy Secretary General Sayit Yusuf described Tynystanuulu as a thinker who helped shape shared Turkic values and identity, and said TÜRKSOY's task is to carry the cultural legacy of earlier generations of intellectuals into the future. Marat Tagaev, Kyrgyzstan's representative at TÜRKSOY, said Tynystanuulu laid the foundations of Kyrgyz linguistics, contributed to the national education system and the formation of the Kyrgyz state, and took part in the First Turkological Congress in Baku in 1926.

Bolot Sagynaev, a member of the Kyrgyz parliament, spoke about Türkiye-Kyrgyzstan friendship and recalled that Türkiye was the first state to recognise Kyrgyz independence. Ufuk Tuzman, head of the Eurasian Writers' Union, spoke about the generation shaped by the Jadid movement, which worked as enlighteners under great pressure. Prof. İlyas Topsakal, head of the Chingiz Aitmatov Institute, recalled the hardships Tynystanuulu and his colleagues faced after the Baku congress. The event closed with a video about Tynystanuulu's life, an exchange of gifts and a group photo.