Korkut Ata Turkic World Film Festival is the reflection of a distant call to us. In order not to forget, the crane reminds itself in the flapping of its wings. It is an invitation to become one. This festival is a harbinger that the time has come to protect our values, to meet the Turkic World in the cultural field and to say new things on behalf of the Turkic nations.

Korkut Ata is a sage who lived the heroic stories of the nomadic Turks who founded great states and told them to the next generations. It is also an honor on behalf of the Turkic World that the name of this great person who lives yesterday, today and will live in the future is kept alive on the occasion of this festival. As a basic communication strategy, cinema constantly renews itself by undertaking the mission of reminding and telling.

Korkut Ata, who carries the mental and conscientious sensitivities of the Turkic nation centuries ago to the present day, has been the host of generations who have adopted their national, moral, humanitar- ian, spiritual and cultural values. By rreserving and developing their past, it will be our rightful pride that generations, who love their family, homeland and nation and always try to glorify them, walk in the footsteps of their leaders like Korkut Ata. Korkut Ata Turkic World Film Festival is of great importance for us in this sense.

In terms of revealing the unity of the countries, it is very valuable that we have a universal common identity in strengthening and sustaining the human values of the future. With the participation of the States of the Turkic Republics, the festival reached an international level. While the bond formed from the heart was established in the cultural field, the ground was prepared for everyone to meet on the basis of the same civilization with the unifying feature of culture and art.

Korkut Ata Turkic World Film Festival was our occasion of honor as the first and only film festival where feature-length and documentary films from the Turkic republics and communities will compete.

The fact that approximately fifty selected films from the Turkic world cinema, with their competitive and non-competitive sections, will meet with the festival audience, will contribute positively to the preserva- tion of cinema culture and the formation of an international cinema language.

I hope that this step taken with Korkut Ata Turkic World Film Festival will serve as a memory for future generations, and I believe that it will contribute to the nourishment of the art of cinema in our country from this cultural background and source.

My thanks to everyone who contributed.