The crane bird never leaves its caravan. He loves freedom. He is so loyal to his comrade. Instead of being alone, it leaves itself to the water. Because being together is the taste of life. Being together is the name of freedom.

The crane bird, the symbol of Korkut Ata Turkic World Film Festival, teaches us to be one and to be together again. It tells about our meeting in the common cultural heritage even though we have taken place in different geographies.

Although we are not one of the children who grew up at the foot of the great wise Korkut Ata, we, as those who grew up with his mission, took it upon ourselves to ensure the continuity of this cause. We cared about family unity, we met around love, honesty and respect, and we embraced courage while reading his stories. We learned honor, solidarity, patriotism, generosity and compassion again, and we wanted our generations to learn, too. It is an invaluable value for us that Dede Korkut Stories serve as a source from tradition to the future, from past to present, from language to literature. He not only remained as the voice of the Oghuz Turks, but also played the role of a mirror for the self-realization of today’s youth.

That’s why this festival takes its name from Wise Korkut Ata. How superb Sezai Karakoç described wise people: “Wise people are on a path. They are alone in this walk, mostly alone; but they are honorable, but proud, but dignified. They do not know how to receive, they tend to give. They have dedicated their lives to a holy cause. This stance is their enormous capital.”

We set out with the hope of leaving a cultural legacy to our generations with the courage we took from those on the way. In this journey, we have adopted an approach of brotherhood, solidarity and coope- ration, taking into account the common cultural and civilizational heritage existing between the Turkic World and the power that historical unity has given us.

Our primary goal has been to build bridges to our future for language, belief and history by making use of knowledge, good manners and mutual experience. Believing in the unifying power of cinema in the field of culture and arts, ensuring unity in the international arena, dealing with the cooperation of cinema between the countries that make up the Turkic world and creating a common film language were among our goals.

I wish Korkut Ata Turkic World Film Festival, which was realized in order to pave the way for the joint production of cinema and the circulation of cinema works among Turkic countries and communities, to be auspicious and I sincerely congratulate everyone who contributed.