Shot Turkology (Book)

Shot Turkology, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Buran’s academic research has resulted in a comprehensive publication. The 560-page work was published by Akçağ Yayınları. In this book, the global journey of Turkology and the pressures and injustices faced by scholars in this field are documented through scientific documents.

Book Cover (Akçağ Yayınları Website)

The book consists of a preface, two main sections, and a bibliography.

Author explains in the preface why he undertook this study by stating: “With this work, we have sought to fulfill our moral duty and responsibility toward those who experienced dramatic and tragic events unknown to any other branch of science, serving Turkology at the cost of their lives.”^【1】

The first section is titled “The Tunnel of Fear”. This section begins with a general and brief history of the deportations, repression, and genocides suffered by Turks in the 20th century. The author details historical realities experienced in the Balkans, the Islands, the Soviet Union, Eastern Turkistan, Iraq, Iran, and Türkiye.

The second section is titled “Shot Turkology – The Genocide of Our Language and Our Science”. This section traces the origins of Oriental Studies and Turkology and examines the 1926 Baku Turkology Congress, identified as a turning point in Turkology history. Scholars, poets, and writers punished after the congress are categorized by the Soviet Union, China, and Türkiye, with detailed information provided on each.

Furthermore, efforts to fragment Turkic unity through artificial languages are examined in detail, and extrajudicial executions targeting thousands of Turkic intellectuals under Stalin’s “Repression” policy are documented with supporting evidence. The contributions to Turkology made by scholars such as Reşit Rahmeti Arat, Zeki Velidi Togan, Ahmet Caferoğlu, Abdulkadir İnan, Ayaz İshaki, Sadri Maksudi (Arsal), and Ahmet Temir, who sought refuge in Türkiye after escaping Soviet repression, are analyzed.

Shot Turkology is a comprehensive and academic work that narrates the life stories of numerous Turkic intellectuals who were punished, deported, and murdered solely for conducting research on Turkic culture, and who endured exile, repression, and genocide across the Turkic world.