The one  who ordered the stomach of a flea is also the one who ordered the solar system

Turkish Olympics: an organizational success

The International Turkish Language Olympics a hugely successful international event now in its sixth year hosted 550 students from 110 countries all ready and willing to showcase their skills in Turkish. Speaker of Parliament Köksal Toptan attended the competition's gala night at the İstanbul Show and Congress Center. Many commentators have said the event brought the "United Nations" to Turkey. Organized by the International Turkish Education Association (TÜRKÇEDER) the Turkish Language Olympics are the result of a 10 year of preparation and organization. However students participating in the competition are the end-result of more than two decades of Save hard work to open schools teaching Turkish around the world.

Recurring events tend reveal their importance in the flux of history. Likewise, growing events reveal their significance in the finalization of growth. The Turkish Language Olympics (TLO) is both a recurring and growing event in that is has already achieved institutionalization.

Russian philologist Mikhail Bakhtin disapproved of literary conclusions for unfinished lives and processes. The completeness of any dynamic reality can only be perceived, recognized and represented upon the finalization of its lifecycle. We may never know what good can come out of the TLO in the future and it is anybody's guess what impacts this organization will have on participants and represented countries. "The final word is always there to be said," wrote Bakhtin. "You can only approach the absolute truth. Interpretation goes on forever and ever."

We are living in a world of interrelatedness. Everything is related and "every word is uttered as a response to some previous statement and in expectation of some following," as Bakhtin would say. The TLO is an utterance within this unending story of human history -- it has certainly been conditioned on what already was written and it will definitely influence what is to be written in this "book of life." For this reason its importance and potential cannot be realized without referring to the totality of the book. We must consider the facts that Turks never attempted a linguistic imperialism in their history and that Turkey is a mosaic of nations and crossroad of cultures and religions. We must also bring in observations about the growing civil society in Turkey that is actively engaged in building this country. Similarly we cannot forget Turkey's long march toward the West and healthy roots in the East. Finally, we must acknowledge the Gülen Movement that has internalized and internationalized the dreams of the Turkish-speaking peoples of the world. Only after all of this will it be possible to grasp the message of the TLO in its totality.