President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the 955th Anniversary of the Conquest of Anatolia – Manzikert 1071 Commemoration Program, held at the Manzikert Battlefield Historical National Park.
Speaking at the ceremony marking the 955th anniversary of the Manzikert Victory, Erdogan highlighted Turkiye’s vision for the future and its uncompromising stance in the fight against terrorism through a historical metaphor. Referring to the determination demonstrated by the ancestors when setting out on military campaigns, Erdogan said, ‘When we set out on a campaign, when we embark on a journey, we tie our horse’s tail, and we do this to show that we will go all the way to the end.’ He emphasized that Turkiye had embarked on an irreversible path toward the goals of the ‘Century of Trkiye’ and a ‘Terror-Free Region.’
Erdogan said history was being rewritten in the region and that Turkiye was helping shape this process through its peaceful policies.
‘Those who dream of stopping it will be destroyed,’ he said.
Here are the highlights from President Erdogan’s speech:
‘My dear nation, my beloved brothers and sisters from Mus, Chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Mr Devlet Bahçeli, esteemed leaders of our political parties, dear young people who are the guarantee of the Century of Trkiye, and my valued sisters. I greet you all with my most heartfelt feelings and affection.
Yesterday, we visited the event area in Ahlat, the gateway to Anatolia and our ancestral city, and embraced our young people. Afterwards, we held our Cabinet Meeting for the third time at the Ahlat Presidential Complex. Now we are here with you in Manzikert, where we broke the rusty lock of Byzantium with the key of faith and opened the main gate to Anatolia.
At the beginning of my speech, I would like to wish you a blessed 955th anniversary of our Manzikert Victory. Today, once again, I respectfully commemorate Sultan Alp Arslan, who opened the gates of this sacred homeland to us through both his genius and the strength of his arm, his blessed and heroic army, and all our martyrs and veterans.
I express my deepest gratitude, one by one, to you, my brothers and sisters, who have filled this square to capacity and delivered a very powerful message of unity and solidarity to the world from here.
I thank my sisters who, with their white headscarves and white leçek head coverings, have turned this place almost into a field of daisies. I would especially like to thank my young brothers and sisters, whom I see as the future soldiers of our victories and the future heroes who will write our epics.
I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart for embracing your history, your spiritual roots and the sacred legacy of your ancestors; for once again bearing witness today to the blessed spirits of Alp Arslan and the warriors who fought in the cause of faith; and for creating this magnificent picture of brotherhood.
May God protect you. May God grant you, our young people, the opportunity to provide the finest and most beneficial service to this sacred nation and this great state.
Today, we are also commemorating the 104th anniversary of the great offensive we launched to tear the dirty hands reaching toward the sanctity of Anatolia from our lands. I am proud of you. Thank you.
On this occasion, I pray for God’s mercy upon our martyrs and veterans who paid the price for our independence during the National Struggle.
I would particularly like to emphasize this, dear young people. We are a nation that, exactly 850 years after making this paradise-like homeland our eternal home at Manzikert, defended it against occupiers at the cost of our lives, gave and took lives in this cause, and loved its independence.
We are a heroic nation that has sacrificed our mothers, spouses and even our own lives for the survival of our state, the existence of our nation and for our flag to fly proudly in the skies. When necessary, we are prepared to give up everything. But when it comes to our homeland, and when the future of our state and nation is at stake, we bow to no one.
God willing, from now on, too, we will continue to exist here and live freely on these lands until the Day of Judgment, with our heads held high, our foreheads clear, an unyielding arm and a heart of steel.
My dear brothers and sisters, the importance of Manzikert stems from the fact that it is history in and of itself. Our late national flag poet, Arif Nihat Asya, expressed the magnificent epic written here with these words.
Look, exactly 955 years ago, on August 26, 1071, Sultan Alp Arslan performed the Friday prayer together with his army. Afterwards, he prayed to Almighty God with his soldiers. When the prayer ended, that heroic sultan turned to his army and said:
‘How much longer will we wait like this, while we are in the minority and the enemy is in the majority? I want to charge upon the enemy at a time when Muslims themselves are praying for us from the pulpits. If we are victorious, all the better. Otherwise, we will go to heaven as martyrs.
At this moment, there is neither a sultan giving orders before you nor a soldier receiving orders. Today, I am one of you. I will wield the sword alongside you. Let those who wish to follow me come. Those who do not wish to do so may turn back.’
When he finished speaking, he put on the white garment he had chosen as his shroud in case he died, took his bow and arrows, and tied his horse’s tail. As he approached the enemy, he dismounted, pressed his face to the earth and once again prayed and supplicated to his Lord.
Then he mounted his horse again and charged at the enemy like an arrow, with himself at the front and the warriors alongside him. At the end of the battle, together with his army, he wrote a magnificent epic at Manzikert that went down in history.
My brothers and sisters, with his magnificent victory, Sultan Alp Arslan did not merely open the gates of Anatolia to our nation. He also opened the roads leading to Jerusalem with Salahuddin Ayyubi, to Istanbul with Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, and to three continents with the Ottoman Empire.
He opened the roads leading to hearts through Mevlana, Yunus Emre, Haci Bektas-i Veli, Idris-i Bitlisî and Ahmed-i. He opened the roads from Anatolia to the Balkans, from the Hejaz to North Africa, from the Adriatic to our ancestral homeland.
You know how we lock it? Well, Sultan Alp Arslan and his army opened that lock.
The late poet Fazil Hsn Daglarca describes it this way: He tied his horse’s tail and made a mace. Alp Arslan entwined death with death. We drove our horses upon them; we charged from the right and left against three hundred thousand. The sky split vein by vein with crimson as a martyr named Gökçe went toward his God. Everyone who saw us turned to stone at the sight of our majestic grandeur. The horses were four-headed, and the heroes had eight arms.
May the blessed spirits of Alp Arslan and his heroes rest in peace. May the spirits of our ancestors who revived our civilization’s geography rest in peace. May the spirits of all our martyrs, who for a year have ensured that the hill of martyrs has not been left empty, rest in peace.
My dear friends, my precious brothers and sisters. There are certain truths in history that cannot be distorted, ignored or denied. One of these truths is this: whenever we, as a nation, have become one, whenever we have united, stood back-to-back and shoulder-to-shoulder, whenever we have held on to one another, we have moved from success to success and from victory to victory.
Remember the Epic of Manzikert 955 years ago. This is how we wrote it. This is how we overcame the difficulties at Gallipoli, during the National Struggle and on July 15. This is how we defeated all the vile forces that sought to attack our independence.
But whenever we succumbed to division and distanced ourselves from one another, that was when we faced very serious dangers.
I particularly want to emphasize this: geographically, we do not live in a rose garden without thorns. For a full thousand years, we have been trying to live with honor and dignity in one of the world’s most challenging regions, as well as one of its most strategically important.
In this geography, we have no option other than being strong, united and together. We have to be strong not only to protect our own rights and interests, but also for the millions of our brothers and sisters who have turned their faces toward our country.
From defense to diplomacy, from education to transportation, from the economy to healthcare, all our efforts are aimed at building an effective and prosperous Trkiye.
When we set out on a campaign, when we embark on a journey, we tie our horse’s tail, and we do this to show that we will go all the way to the end. We have tied our horse’s tail to build the Century of Trkiye.
We have tied our horse’s tail for a Terror-Free Trkiye and a Terror-Free Region. We have done this for our brotherhood.
Let friends and enemies alike know: history is being rewritten in our region. Trkiye is shaping the region through its peaceful policies. No one can stop this anymore.
Those who dream of stopping it will be destroyed. We will not take different paths because of provocations by others. We will continue moving forward with determination, patience and resolve.
With these thoughts, I once again congratulate you on the 955th anniversary of the Manzikert Victory. I thank everyone who contributed to organizing this program. Until we meet again, I entrust you to God.’