Alwaght- Sky is the limit to the illogical lofty dreams of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. In his latest controversial comments, the Turkish leader has gone far beyond the limits and in a speech celebrating Nowruz in Istanbul on March 21 described the ancient Persian eve the "common celebration of Turkic world", adding that this culture helps their unity and solidarity.
He spoke of his serious plan to seize this great celebration of the Iranian people, adding: "We intend to propose at the summit in Hungary in May that Nowruz be celebrated as a day of commemoration and joint celebration of the Turkic world."
Why is Erdogan seeing to hijack Nowruz?
Erdogan is seeking to hijack the purely Persian ceremony while Turkey these days is witnessing unrest, and the trial and imprisonment of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the Turkish opposition leader who is expected to challenge Erdogan in the next presidential elections as the main opposition candidate, has pushed the country into a state of chaos.
Following the arrest of Imamoglu on charges of collaborating with a terrorist group and corruption, various cities in Turkey have been the scene of protests against this move by the government and the judicial system, and it continues to do so. Tensions and clashes in the Turkish parliament, a 16.5 percent drop in the Istanbul Stock Exchange in one day, recording a new drop of the stock exchange in the past 17 years, and the cost of $12 billion for the central bank to maintain the value of the country's currency are some of the consequences of this government move.
Past experiences have shown that when Erdogan runs into a crisis, he moves to kind of nationalist concepts. Moving towards nationalism in times of internal crisis is not uniquely characteristic of Erdogan, however. In general, when their legitimacy is challenged at home, authoritarian rulers resort to nationalist concepts, and Erdogan's recent claims about Nowruz are also seen as part of these efforts.
Erdogan's cultural thefts
The issue of stealing the identity and national heritage of Iranians by Turkey is not happening for the first time. After registering Rumi, the prominent Persian poet, as a poet belonging to Turkey , in January, the Turkish government introduced Abu Rayhan Biruni, Ibn Sina, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Kathir Farghani, and Ali bin Muhammad Samarqandi as Turkish scientific figures at the TÜBİTAK Awards ceremony held in the presence of Erdogan. This is despite the fact that all of these figures are Iranian, as evidenced by history and existing documents and works. Additionally, during the lifetime of these cultural and historical individuals, there was no entity called Turkey.
Nowruz, the Iranian legacy for all nations
Erdogan's claims aimed at hijacking Nowruz have been made while the Nowruz case was included in the World Intangible Heritage List with the proposal and leadership of Iran 16 in 2009, with the membership of 7 countries in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and in 2016 with the accession of 5 more countries (a total of 12 countries) and with the approval of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee.
Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Iraq were the 12 countries that jointly registered Nowruz globally. On November 5, 2024, Mongolia also joined the list , bringing the honor of this ancient eve and holiday to it.
Nowruz has been registered as a comprehensive ritual with five approved genres, and numerous Asian, Arab, and African countries have applied to join this list, and for this reason, Nowruz will soon become the largest intangible heritage file in the world.
Nowruz is the biggest Iranian national celebration, the exact time of its origin and beginning is unknown. But based on documents and evidence, the history of this celebration goes back to millennia before Christ. In the past, the location of Nowruz was not fixed, and what we call Nowruz today is the result of the order of Malekshah I, who brought together a number of Iranian astronomers, including the Hakim Omar Khayyam, to prepare an Iranian calendar, and by making precise calculations, the location of Nowruz was fixed in Farvardin, the first month of the Persian calender.
Archaeological evidence and inscriptions from Persepolis indicate that Nowruz is an Achaemenid celebration, but no source introduces Nowruz as a Turkish celebration, and even the Seljuks and Ottomans from whose ashes the modern Turkey rose celebrated Nowruz as an Iranian tradition. The most important symbol of Nowruz is the Haft Sin table, which is one of the most important customs common in different regions of Iran and a common ritual among all the ethnic groups that celebrate Nowruz.
