“The most pleasant and pure feeling is to live with a sense of being part of the Motherland, because exactly this feeling spares [us] from loneliness.” LonelinessMotherlandTurkTurkicTurkmenistanTurkmen Author:Saparmurat Niyazov
“They (Azeris) are the poets and singers of the Turkic world, not the soldiers.” PoetsTurkishTurkTurkicNagorno KarabakhAzerbaidjan Author:A Turkish Officer
“If we hadn't had Atatürk, we would have been an Afghanistan, an Iraq!” IraqAfghanistanTurkishTurkTurkeyTurkicTurksAtaturk Author:Özden Toker
“Nagorno Karabakh we sold, without the faintest sigh, We auctioned off our factories until our wealth ran dry, Now we are slaves or exiles, thieving strangers are our lords, For whom our prostrate backs a wide and easy road affords.” PoetryTurkTurkicAzerbaijanNagorno Karabakh Author:Bextiyar Vahabzede
“A huge majority know nothing of the idea or ideal of the nation. We remain without a compass and our society, like a group of lunatics, fights among itself.” TurkTurkicAzerbaijanTuranTurkestanAzerbaijaniAzeri Author:Mehmet Emin Resulzade
“Even if you forget you're a Turk, your enemy will not.” TurkTurkicAzerbaijanTuranTurkestanAzerbaijaniAzeri Author:Ebulfez Elchibey
“It's the symbol of freedom (the gray wolf) for all the Turks. We are all Gray Wolves now, and Elchibey is the leader of a greater Turkic world!” SymbolTurkTurkicAzerbaijanTuranTurkestanAzerbaijaniAzeriElchibeyGray Wolf Author:An Azerbaijani officer
“A flag once raised will never fall!” TurkTurkicAzerbaijanFlagTuranTurkestanAzerbaijaniAzeri Author:Mehmet Emin Resulzade
“Pressing close, our enemies bellicose, unsleeping, Aim to make us feeble, if our name is scorned, if our fame is shamed, What defines us as a people?” PoetryCrimeaTurkTurkicCrimean TatarTatar Author:Rıza Fazıl
“The Turkish nation's character is noble The Turkish nation is industrious The Turkish nation is intelligent.” IntelligentNobleTurkishIndustriousTurkTurkeyTurkicTurks Author:Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
“The prohibition of wine is a very wise maxism and meant for the common people, being the source of disorders amongst them, but that the prophet never designed to confine those that knew how to use it with moderation.” WineAlcoholTurkishBalkansTurkTurkicOttoman EmpireOttoman Author:A Turkish effendi
“At the moment of my betrayal to my motherland, to her sacred banner, to Saparmurat Turkmenbashy, let my breath stop.” TurkTurkicTurkmenistanTurkmenTurkmenbashySaparmurat Niyazov Author:Turkmen poem
“How dare you question if I fast? Or come between my God and me? How claim no lust for what's forbidden, Then veils wrap round the face that's free? My vice is wine or rakı. I drink! So what? It does no harm to you. We'll face the hair-thin bride together; Blind drunk, I'll pass, if I be true.” PoetryFaithTurkTurkicRakı Author:Neyzen Tevfik
“For sweetness, people made and ate pekmez (grape syrup). There was nothing in Anatolia, no manufacturing industry. This brewery was an example to the peasants, it was to start the infrastructure, it was to teach what progress could bring.” ProgressTurkishTurkTurkicBreweryAnatolia Author:Mehmet Demirci
“The wealth of the state is as wide as the sea, and he who does not eat of it is a pig.” TurkishTurkTurkic Author:Turkish Proverb
“The vulgar Turk is very different from what is spoken at court, 'tis as ridiculous to make use of the expressions commonly used in speaking to a great man or lady, as it would be to talk broad Yorkshire or Somershetshire in the drawing room.” LanguageTurkishTurkTurkeyTurkicOttoman EmpireOttoman Author:Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
“Rarely has the West in its quasi-totality taken up such a persistent and negative image of a people (the Turks).” TurkishTurkTurkeyTurkicTurksThe West Author:Stéphane Yerasimos
“Reform isn't easy, and for me dress is the most important symbol of it, all revolutions must be takes as a whole, we've got to complete the mission.” RevolutionReformTurkishDressTurkTurkeyTurkicTurks Author:Özden Toker
“Strictures and prohibitions availed nothing. The fatwas, the talk, made no impression on the people. One coffeehouse was opened after another, and men would gather together, with great eagerness and enthusiasm, to drink coffee... such things do not admit of a perpetual ban.” CoffeeTurkishTurkTurkeyTurkicOttoman EmpireOttomanCoffeehouse Author:Kâtip Çelebi
“It is impossible to hide any more of his (Turkmenbashy) pure hypocrisy, the absence of elementary norms of political and diplomatic behavior, the insidiousness and cruelty in relation to the people and the spreading of an atmosphere of fear.” TurkTurkicTurkmenistanTurkmenTurkmenbashySaparmurat Niyazov Author:Boris Sheikhmuradov
“All this will pass in a few years, when the people no longer depend on me. The Turkmens have always bowed to something; once it was fire, then Islam, then Marx... the people have to believe in something.” TurkTurkicTurkmenistanTurkmen Author:Saparmurat Niyazov
“They started conquering the world, then they over-stretched themselves and they collapsed. Today's Turkish people are those who left the territory of modern Kazakhstan and settled in the country where they live now. When we meet each other, we always remember this.” TurkishTurkTurkeyTurkicKazakhstanTuranKazakhTurkestan Author:Nursultan Nazarbayev
“Eat well before you entertain your guests.” ProverbTurkTurkicKazakhstanTuranKazakhTurkestan Author:A Kazakh proverb
“God Most High caused the Sun of Fortune to rise in the Zodiac of the Turks; he called them 'Turk' and made them Kings of the Age. Every man of reason must attach himself to them, or else expose himself to their falling arrows.” TurkTurkic Author:Mahmud al-Kashgari
“The government here is entirely in the hands of the army. The Grand Signor [Ottoman Sultan], with all his absolute power, is as much a slave as any of his subjects, and trembles at a janissary's frown.” ArmyTurkishTurkTurkicOttomanJannisary Author:Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
“The Turks have an army that goes back to the Ottoman Empire. Our army is very new. But there's a world of difference already between the early 1990's and now (early 2000). The food and pay, it's all better.” ArmyTurkishTurkTurkicOttomanTurksAzerbaijani Author:An Azerbaijani colonel
“A knowledge of Persian will aid a traveler in these countries [Turkmenistan]; but the Toorkey [Turkish] is of infinitely greater consequence.” BritishTurkishTurkTurkicBritish Armyy Author:A British major
“Throughout history; the Turks' political organization has developed in step with their military organization. Their hearts dedicated to soldiering, the Turks have proved to the world that their nation is an army.” ArmyTurkishTurkTurkicTurks Author:Turkish General Staff
“As far as concerns the army, I don't know which people among us can claim to be more disciplined and closer to the order of the Romans than the Turks.” ArmyTurkishRomanTurkTurkicRomansTurks Author:Francesco Sansovino
“If we have an administration in this country [Turkey], it's the army. But a big percentage of so-called public 'confidence' in the army is just fear. Civilians are not yet conscious of their power.” ArmyCiviliansTurkishTurkTurkeyTurkicTurks Author:Mehmet Dülger
“The military consider themselves the real owners of this country [Turkey] because they are ready to give their lives to save us. But I would like to be governed, not saved. I want to be saved from the people who want to save me.” MilitaryArmyTurkTurkeyTurkicTurksTukish Author:Mehmet Dülger
“What is important for Islamic states is the spreading of fundamentalism. In order to survive inside Iran, they [the Mullahs] need to export their ideas. Our friends the Saudis finance it too. Their regime is not compatible with the modern era, but they have activists in Turkey who are trying to impose their ideology.” IranFundamentalismTurkishTurkTurkeyTurkicSaudiMullah Author:Fevzi Türkeri
“The more we offer the villagers, the more they want. And if I can give it, I will. The terrorists had the support of the local people [Kurds], but it was at gunpoint. In the past the terrorists would burn the government bulldozers. Now people see that if you don't have bulldozers, you'll get no road.” ArmyTerroristTurkishTurkTurkicKurd Author:General Ergin Saygun
“I once tried to take the army unit here [Kurdish village] back to the barracks, but the village chief came and said he would resign if I did. Soldiers [Turks] here help with irrigation, painting walls, building carpet workshops, and so on. When there's an army unit here, the villagers even have a doctor and free medicine.” ArmyTurkishGeneralTurkTurkicTurksKurd Author:General Ergin Saygun
“Avoid the attitude 'these people (locals) don't understand anything.' Trying to base one's authority on pressure and fear may be effective in the short term, but this is deceptive. Don't forget that to be smiling and kind is not the same as being weak and undisciplined.” ArmyTurkishTurkTurkic Author:Colonel Dağ
“I like Western values. Since the time we were in Central Asia, the momentum of Turks has been towards the West. But this shouldn't be interpreted as worship of, or dependence on the West.” ArmyWesternTurkishTurkTurkicTurksCentral AsiaThe WestWestern Values Author:Hilmi Özkök
“We (Turkish soldiers) were met by just a few men on horseback in Caucasian dress, like fairy-tale soldiers with silver-plated sabres in their belts. Our small procession seemed to me to be the harbinger of a great liberation, the awakening of the vast land of Turan. It was a new Ergenekon.” TurkishTurkTurkicCaucasianOttomanTurksTuranErgenekon Author:Şevket Süreyya Aydemir
“Our duty would be to create, in the place of the outdated (Ottoman) Empire, a new national entity in harmony with its historic and linguistic unity and its desires.” UnityTurkishTurkTurkicOttomanTuran Author:Şevket Süreyya Aydemir
“According to a medival Turkic saying, "a Turk is never without a Persian [Tat, a sedentary Iranian], just as a cap is never without a head." The relationship was mutually beneficial.” PersianTurkicCentral AsiaIntercultural RelationsMedival Book:Central Asia in World History Source: Central Asia in World History
“Organize competitions to let the local people see that your sharpshooters shoot well. But don't allow the bodies of dead terrorists to be robbed. Don't show damaged bodies of terrorists in the village square to try to show 'this is what we can do'. This behavior may frighten the people but damages the image of a caring state.” ArmyTurkishTerroristsTurkicTurks Author:Colonel Dağ