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Events to mark the 954th anniversary of the Battle of Manzikert, or Malazgirt, have already begun in eastern Türkiye, while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ministers are expected to join patriotic celebrations on Monday and Tuesday.
On Aug. 26, 1071, the Seljuks secured a victory against Byzantine forces, outnumbering them and opened the gates of Anatolia for ongoing Turkish rule.
The anniversary of the battle that proved the resilience of Turks in Anatolia coincides with the terror-free Türkiye initiative that aims to wipe out the threat of terrorism by the PKK, which has long terrorized lands, including places where Seljuks prepared for the battle. Erdoğan is expected to speak on the initiative for disarmament of the PKK and reiterate the importance of unity of the nation to advance the initiative. Proponents of the initiative view it as a drive to cement Turkish-Kurdish unity against the PKK’s separatist agenda that sought to pit Kurds against Turks.
On Monday, Erdoğan will chair a meeting of his Cabinet in Ahlat, a present-day town in Bitlis province, at a recently inaugurated presidential complex, the only such modern-day presidential office built outside the capital Ankara. Ahlat was the starting point for the Seljuk army before it clashed with the enemy in Malazgirt, now a town of the Muş province. Erdoğan and other dignitaries are expected to attend another event in Malazgirt after attending the commemoration and celebration in Ahlat.
Local authorities and nongovernmental organizations cooperate for events in Ahlat and Malazgirt, which seek to preserve the cultural heritage of the Seljuks and their successors, the Ottomans. In Ahlat, 50 yurts representing Turkish tribes of yesteryear and a larger yurt named after Seljuk Sultan Alparslan were pitched as the venue of events.
Events already started over the weekend in Malazgirt and Ahlat. On Saturday night, a large crowd carried a giant Turkish flag and torches to remember the martyrs of the battle and marched through Malazgirt. Among them were mounted archer units of Turkish gendarmerie forces, a unit founded as a stunt team to keep the mounted archery tradition of ancient Turkic tribes alive and motorcycle squads, their modern-day equivalent in Turkish National Police.
In a national park dedicated to the battle whose exact battlefield is still not fully discovered, concerts by folk music singers were held on Saturday. Elsewhere, nongovernmental organizations focusing on traditional sports offered the public a chance to relive the experience of ancient archery and other sports, while several organizations promoting Turkish culture set up stalls in event venues in Ahlat and Malazgirt. Above, the Turkish Stars aerial stunt team of the army performed stunts in Malazgirt on the occasion on Saturday.
On Aug. 26, 1071, Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes’ army took on the Seljuk army of mostly mounted archers, led by Sultan Alparslan, suffering a huge defeat. Romanos was taken captive before being released by Alparslan. According to the agreement between the two leaders, a few border posts were handed over to the Seljuks. The deal allowed Sultan Alparslan to turn his full attention to the Fatimids ruling over Egypt. However, the emperor was soon toppled, tortured and killed by rivals before the empire was consumed by a destructive civil war. The agreement between the two leaders was not ratified by the new emperor, who rejected its terms. The civil war allowed nomadic Turkmen tribes following in the footsteps of the Seljuk army to flood and take over most of Anatolia, apart from a few outposts on the coast. Alparslan did not live long after the battle, dying at the hands of an assassin a year later.
The conquest of Anatolia also directly resulted in the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire seeking help from the Catholic Vatican. Pope Urban II used Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos’s request for military aid to declare, at the Council of Clermont in 1095, a general mobilization of Western Christendom against the Turks who had occupied Anatolia and much of the Middle East. The resulting mass invasion is called the Crusades.
The battle is seen by the Turks as the beginning of the transformation of Anatolia into the land of the Turks.
The growing push into present-day Türkiye from the east rarely ceased and peaked in the next century, with the foundation of the Ottoman Empire in 1299. The Ottomans, originally a clan pledging allegiance to the Seljuks, eventually marched on their own and evolved into an empire, controlling territories from Europe’s east to the northern shores of Africa and much of the Middle East. For more than six centuries, they served as guards of Anatolia before their eventual decline in the early 20th century. Mustafa Kemal, an Ottoman officer, led the Turkish War of Independence and managed to save what was left of the sprawling empire. He went on to become Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first president of the Republic of Türkiye. The Turkish nation, under the leadership of Atatürk, saved Malazgirt and all territories in Anatolia from assorted invading forces from the Western powers. Critical battles in the War of Independence are also fought in August, and the month is informally known as “the month of victories,” while Aug. 30 is formally marked as Victory Day in the country.
