Kagan bitig based on ancient Turkic runic writing

There are more than 30 countries in the world that have their own unique writing system. The Turkic peoples also had an autochthonous writing system however due to its “obscurity” not only foreign tourists traveling to modern countries and cities with a predominantly autochthonous Turkic-speaking population, but also the majority of speakers of Turkic languages are not aware of the original written heritage and the presence of ancient Turkic runes (hereinafter referred to as “TR”) because Latin, Cyrillic and Arabic are widely used. For example, a person located in Japan, South Korea, China, Georgia, Armenia, Greece, the UAE and Israel, thanks to signs and inscriptions on their unique symbols (shops, restaurants, products, menus, etc.) can immediately detect live confirmation cultural and historical identity of the country. Unfortunately, not only in the Republic of Sakha, but also in other Turkic countries and regions of the world, the Orkhon-Yenisei script is still not considered as an important element of cultural heritage. At the end of 2021 according to various estimates there were no more than 300 people in the world who knew the basics of ancient Turkic runic writing (Turkic runes, Orkhon-Yenisei writing) and no more than 100 actively using it in everyday life (mostly citizens of retirement age). After gaining independence, in many Turkic-speaking countries, interest in the written heritage of the era of the Great Turkic Khaganate gradually increases but previously there was no single center or museum completely dedicated to Turkic runic writing. In national and regional museums and libraries, only individual exhibits are presented in the main collections. 80% of documents, monuments and other types of intangible heritage are in museum storage due to lack of space for their display.   Turkic runes (in ancient Turkic: “Bitig”) are a unique heritage of the Turkic superethnos, along with language, ornament, music, traditional national clothing and cuisine. This writing system is a living testimony to historical experience and an indicator of a high level of cultural development, as well as the far-sighted policy of our ancestors, who used this writing since the 6th century to establish and expand cultural and economic ties not only among the peoples of the Great Steppe, but also throughout most of the center of Eurasia. In 2021 a center for the study of Turkic writing “Turk Tengri” was opened in Almaty and Kazan within the walls of which over 20,000 people were trained using the author’s methodology of Yespenbetov / Khabibrakhmanov “Turkic runic for beginners” [1, p. 36]. Thanks to the study of runics most people interested in the culture and traditions of the peoples of the Turkic group of languages can get direct access to the original information left by the ancient Turks more than 1,000 years ago.

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