Yunus Emre Institute has organized a couple of events to promote Göbeklitepe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, officially launched by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2019, within the framework o the October 29 Republic Day festivities.

The Göbeklitepe Historical Site has been promoted through exhibitions unveiled in Sarajevo, Amman, Lahore, Cologne, Kabul, Baku, Kazan, Bucharest, Paris, Pristina, Kuala Lumpur, Nur-Sultan, Cairo, Podgorica, Skopje, Belgrade, Zagreb and Dakar during the October 29 Republic Day receptions  organized by the Turkish embassies in the capitals.

Göbeklitepe, the world's oldest monument dating back to 12,000 years ago, has been showcased for heads of state and government, scientists, artists and representatives of foreign missions at the exhibitions held by Yunus Emre Institute within the frame of the October 29 Republic Day celebrations.

Göbeklitepe On World Tour

Yunus Emre Institute has organized 62 different Göbeklitepe-themed events in 28 countries ranging from South Korea to Italy or from Germany to South Africa since the designation of 2019 as the Year of Göbeklitepe.

During the Turkey Week festivities, themed as "Göbeklitepe: Humans and Life," organized in three countries, namely Croatia (Zagreb), Spain (Madrid) and Serbia (Belgrade), four exhibitions have been unveiled and six conferences have been held with the participation of Göbeklitepe Excavation Committee Chairman and Şanlıurfa Museum Director Celal Uludağ and archaeologists. The Göbeklitepe-themed Turkey Week will run until the end of the year and its next destination will be Georgia and Lebanon in November.

The photography exhibition "Zero Point of History: Göbeklitepe," curated to describe the historical adventure of Göbeklitepe since its discovery through photographs, has been launched at many venues including archaeology museums, national libraries and touristic squares in 32 cities in 24 countries.

Let's Go Out

The figures unearthed in Göbeklitepe have been promoted to world children during the "Children's Festival," organized in cooperation with the Directorate General of Youth Services of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and Ankara University's Children Culture Implementation and Research Center.

Aiming to introduce kids to the traditional street games so that they can get away from technology and improve their physical and mental skills with its motto "Let's Go Out," the Children's Festival has been held in four countries, namely Croatia, Qatar, Jordan and South Korea. At the art workshops designed for children, wooden toys developed by the Institute specifically for the Year of Göbeklitepe were used to promote Göbeklitepe for the kids.

12,000-Year-Old Adventure Of Wheat

Turkish cuisine events and workshops have been held in Hungary, Palestine, Montenegro, Lebanon and the United Kingdom to showcase the 12,000-year-old adventure of wheat with the participation of Turkish cuisine history researcher and award-winning cookbook writer and chef Ömür Akkor.

Within the context of the events in which Turkish culinary culture and history as well as the distinguished delicacies of Turkish cuisine have been introduced to culinary professionals and gastronomy students, famed chef cooked bread from İza wheat grown in Montenegro for the participants. The next destination of the events will be Malaysia and South Africa.

Extraordinary Discovery At Zero Point Of History

In addition to its annual summer schools, the Institute has launched the "Turkey in the World Cultural Heritage: Archaeology Summer School" for the first time this year to welcome 21 young archaeologists, art historians and museologists from 21 countries.

The participants have had an opportunity to discover the invaluable treasures in world cultural heritage in our country as they were accompanied by Şanlıurfa Museum Director and Göbeklitepe Excavation Committee Chairman Celal Uludağ. They have engaged in field work in Göbeklitepe, which amounted to an outdoor academic lecture with the participation of field experts and archaeologists.

Be Our Guest

British parliamentarians have been entertained in our country as part of the "Be Our Guest" project, launched by the Institute as a cultural diplomacy initiative. The delegation has paid a visit to Göbeklitepe, where they were briefed about the work conducted in the excavation site and they had a chance to examine the finds unearthed.

The Institute will continue to promote Göbeklitepe with various events themed around the historical site which has led to the rewriting of history and urged historians to dispense with their established theories, until the end of the year.