Tarana Turan Rahimli, a poet, literary critic, educator and journalist, Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, who holds a unique place in the scientific and literary environment of Azerbaijan, has been awarded the 2025 International Turkish Language Service Award by KIBATEK – Cyprus, Iraq, Balkans, Eurasia Turkish Literatures Association, one of the influential international literary organizations of the Turkic world. This award is presented to scientists and artists who have been working long-term, systematically and consistently to promote the Turkish language, Turkic world literatures and pan-Turkic cultural values on an international scale.
KIBATEK’s 50th International Literature Festival took place in Izmir and Aydin, Turkey, on December 12–14, 2025. On the first day of the festival, December 12, at an official ceremony held at the Culture and Arts Factory under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Turkey, Assoc. Prof. Tarana Turan Rahimli was awarded the 2025 Turkish Language Service Award. The fact that the award was presented on the eve of December 15 – World Turkic Language Family Day made this award even more meaningful and symbolic. The award, which expresses the unifying power of the Turkish language, its being a bearer of common memory and cultural identity, is considered a high international award for the poet-scientist’s many years of scientific and literary activity.
According to the official statement of the KIBATEK Board of Directors, Doctor of Philology, Assoc. Prof. Tarana Turan Rahimli was awarded this highest award for her fundamental scientific research in the field of Turkic World literatures, the strong literary and scientific ties she established between Azerbaijani and Turkish literatures, and her consistent activity aimed at developing relations between the Turkic World and world literatures. Her scientific and artistic works, published in more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe, America and Africa, were evaluated as a significant contribution to the global promotion of the Turkish language and literature. At the same time, her continuous support for the international scientific, literary and cultural projects of the organization as an active member of the KIBATEK family for many years was also emphasized.
In the official “Award Statement” presented together with the 2025 International Turkish Language Service Award, the organization’s leadership noted that it was proud to present this award to Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor Tarana Turan Rahimli, and that it believed that her intensive contributions to the Turkish language, Turkic world literature and Turkology would continue.
During the festival days, poets, writers and scholars representing Turkey, Azerbaijan, Moldova (Gagauzia), Bulgaria, Kosovo, Romania, Northern Cyprus, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq and Iran came together and demonstrated the unifying mission of poetry, literature and culture.
In this sense, the 50th KIBATEK International Literature Festival was remembered as an important cultural platform covering the vast geography of the Turkic world.
Sharing her thoughts on the award, Tarana Turan Rahimli said that she accepted this award with great pride and responsibility: “It was a great honor for me to be awarded the Service Award for the Turkish Language on the first day of the 50th International Literature Festival of KIBATEK, on December 12, at the Culture and Arts Factory of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Turkey. I experienced the joy of the festival with its double grandeur. The fact that this award was presented on the eve of the World Turkic Language Family Day on December 15 increased its moral value even more. I express my endless gratitude to everyone who contributed to this process, especially the honorary president of the Cyprus, Iraq, Balkans, Eurasian Turkish Literatures Association, Fayyaz Saglam. May our path be clear to justify this great trust given on behalf of 50 countries with more extensive scientific and literary works.”
The Azerbaijani people longed for their second homeland, Turkey, for 70 years during the Soviet era. Therefore, after Azerbaijan gained its independence in the 90s, we immediately aspired to reunite with our second homeland. And first of all, we established literary and cultural relations with Turkey. We heard about the research of our teacher Fayyaz Sağlam on the literature of the Western Thracian Turks and the Balkan Turks in general in 1998. In 1999, I wrote my first article on the literary and scientific activities of Fayyaz Sağlam in the newspaper “Azerbaijan Mubarizleri” in 1999 and published it in the newspaper “Azerbaijan Mubarizleri” where I was the editor. I was invited to the Turkish Embassy in connection with that article, and the responsible employee of the embassy, Umit Yardim bey, encouraged me for my research article on the devoted researcher of Western Thracian literature and Balkan literature, Fayyaz Sağlam.
In 2008, I participated in the KIBATEK poetry festival held in Baku at the Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University, where I was a teacher. Since then, I have been regularly invited to KIBATEK events and I have participated with great pride.
KIBATEK has been serving an important mission of promoting and introducing Turkish literature and our great Turkish language all over the world for 27 years. Its path to success covers a vast geography from Turkey to the Caucasus, Russia, the Balkans, Europe, and faraway Australia. How happy we are if, as members of KIBATEK, we have made a small contribution to the Turkic world, its culture and literature on this long and honorable path! Among the international awards I have received from up to 60 countries around the world, the KIBATEK award has a different place.”
The awarding of the Turkish Language Service Award to Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor Tarana Turan Rahimli by KIBATEK is not only a personal achievement of a scientist and poet, but also an indicator of the international prestige of Azerbaijani science and literature. This award once again confirms that the work done to preserve, develop and pass on the Turkish language to future generations is recognized at a high international level.