23.02.2024 - 24.02.2024 | Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
The Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan and the Institute of Manuscript of Turkmenistan held an international scientific conference titled "The Origin of the Turkmen People and the History of World Culture" on 23 - 24 February 2024 in Ashgabat. The conference covered a broad scope of scientific subjects: archeology, anthropology and ethnography as a valuable source of ethnic history of Turkmens, ancient tribes of Turkmenistan and the Turkmen ethnogenesis, the origin of the Turkmen people, material and spiritual heritage of the Turkmen people in the world's cultural heritage, the interaction of cultures and civilizations in the modern era.Scientists from more than forty countries around the world attended the event. Among them were historians and philosophers, archeologists and anthropologists, art critics and culture experts, architects and restorers, museum workers and teachers of high schools from the USA, Canada, the Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, Korea, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, India, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Jordan. The UNESCO delegated their representative to the international scientific conference on behalf of science, education and culture.
Visitors of plenary session, among them members of the government, representatives of public organizations of the country, the academic institutes and high schools, mass media, scientists, cultural workers, and students attentively listened to the reports of Kun Lee Khan, the regional representative of UNESCO (China); Sin Khong, the president of the research center (South Korea); Talal Ismail, professor (Sweden); Ilya Zaitsev, Academy of sciences of the Russian Federation and the Institute of Oriental Studies (Russian Federation) and others. There were contributions about the role of Turkmenistan in world history, the origin of the Turkmen people from their beginnings to present day, the formation of a culture, life, art, folklore, architecture, and also about the contribution of the Turkmen people to the spiritual development of some other countries and nations.
Lecturers underlined the positive influence of the president of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, concerning the scale progressive reforms promoting studies of the original history of the Turkmen people, the preservation and popularisation of their material and spiritual heritage, the activation of scientific researches and the international cooperation in this sphere.
After the plenary session, the conference work proceeded in five scientific sections:
A wide range of scientific topics and researches were captured by the lecturers. They pointed out the contribution of the Turkmen people to cultural development, their influence on the historical processes and ethnos of the neighbouring countries and other people. For example Niyaz Yakubov, a scientific employee of Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, presented a concept on the history of the Oguz - a Turkmen ethnos. In addition his research on the influence of the Turkmen tribe Teke on the historical and political processes of Azerbaijan was met with great interest and underlined the significant role of the Turkmen people in the historical processes of the neighboring states.
The second part of his presentation was devoted to the kyariz (aqueduct) system of water supply, which is a unique monument of town-planning of in antiquity. In many cities the kyariz systems were of great importance for water supply and represent unique monuments of an ancient engineering thought. The kyariz systems played in important role during a siege of the cities and allowed the defenders to regularly provide the people with water for a long time. In Central Asia a considerable place is occupied with kyariz culture of Turkmenistan, which - as well as a caravansary culture - for researches is a source of development of material and spiritual culture.
Further participants of conference also spoke about the influence of the Turkmen people on the cultural and historical development of other nations. Summing up the international scientific conference, it became obvious, that there is a necessity to promote the expansion of international contacts in the field of an all-round study of history, material and spiritual culture of the Turkmen people and their contribution to world processes.
Source: known to the editor
