Documentary to mark 1,300th year of Turkic inscriptions

ISTANBUL

Turkey's public broadcaster is set to air a special documentary Thursday evening on 1,300-year-old Turkic inscriptions in present-day Mongolia on historical events that occurred during the Gokturk era in Central Asia.

The TRT Avaz TV channel prepared Bilge Tonyukuk inscriptions as part of events to mark the 1,300th anniversary of the construction of the monuments.

In a statement, the TRT said the documentary, titled Tonyukuk, sought to make better-known Bilge Tonyukuk, an important figure in Turkish history.

It said the documentary included important information on Turkish politics, military structure, law and intellectual life.

Directed by Coskun Oguz, the film was shot in Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Turkey and is based on writings Bilge Tonyukuk himself chiseled onto the standing stones that bear witness to his time in the eighth century.

The inscriptions depict the war strategies of the Turks, their wars for independence and Tonyukuk's struggles for the Turkish nation.

Tonyukuk will be broadcast Thursday at 9.30 p.m. local time [1830 GMT] on TRT Avaz.

Upon Turkey's proposal, UNESCO included the 1,300th anniversary of the construction of the Tonyukuk Monument in its anniversary recommendations list for 2020-2021.

The proposal was backed by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Uzbekistan.

*Contributions and writing by Sena Guler