Otuken, the Sacred Center of the Turks?

Scientific researches have revealed that the creator of the culture that developed in the steppes of Central Asia was the Turks. This culture spread to all of Central Asia over time and has made this geography known as Turkistan today. The tribe that formed the first known political model of the Turkish nation in the geography of Turkestan was the Huns.
According to written legendary texts, the history of the Huns goes back to three thousand BC. However, the exact date of the Hun political union can only be traced back to IV. It is possible to follow it from the 19th century. The center of the region where the Huns lived in this period; It is the source basin of the Orhun and Selenga Rivers and the Altai Mountains.
When the Huns spread to the Ordos region after a while, China, seeing that a new political and military power that could rival it, started to emerge, attacked the Huns with a large army in 215 BC. Thereupon, the Huns retreated to the north of the Gobi Desert, to the Orkhon and Altai regions in order not to be destroyed. This region, also called Ötüken, became the center of the Hun Empire, which was made the greatest power in Asia by Mete.
After the collapse of the Asian Hun Emperor, the Turks lived as independent or semi-independent tribes in different regions. It was the Göktürks who ended this long period of time. According to Chinese sources, the ancestors of the Göktürks are related to the Huns. It is known that in the first half of the 6th century, the Gokturks were engaged in blacksmithing, which is their traditional art, on the eastern foothills of the Altai Mountains and in the nearby areas (Yarkent, Kashgar, Kucha, etc.) and manufactured weapons for the Juan-juan (Avar) State, to which they were affiliated.
The loyalty of the Turkish mass to the Juan-juans is rather federative. It was Bumin Kagan who ended this situation. Bumin, who struck a heavy blow by attacking the Juan-juans in the beginning of 552, took the title of Il-Kağan and established the Göktürk State, with Ötüken the center. After that, the Göktürk State became a great empire whose borders exceeded the borders of the Hun Empire. However, the end of the Göktürk Empire was like the Hun Empire.
The state was first divided into two as East and West, and then it weakened as a result of Chinese provocations and rebellions of some tribes. As a result, in 630, the Eastern Göktürk Khaganate and a short time later the Western Göktürk Khaganate collapsed. But after 50 years of Chinese captivity, in 680, Kutluk, a descendant of Aşina, started the war of independence to save the Göktürks from Chinese domination.
With the help of Tonyukuk, who joined him, he started to prepare by making the northern skirts of Chogay (Yin-shan Mountains, the great mountain range on the north side of the Huang-ho big elbow) their summer center and Kara-kum their winter center. His first target is Ötüken. However, when the Oghuzs along the Selenga River, who saw that the Gokturks were recovering, made an alliance with the Khitans and China, a raid was made against the Oghuzs. As a result of the victory won in 682 on the shores of the İnekler Lake in this raid, the Göktürks got Ötüken. Thereupon, Kutlug declared himself khan and took the name İlteriş.
As it can be seen, the first target of the Turkish states established in Asia during the establishment phase and the place where they declared their independence when they captured and retreated to avoid destruction when they were stuck has always been Ötüken. This is also evident from the official records of all states that were in contact with the Gokturks, especially China, and the monuments of the Gokturk and Uyghur states. Especially in Kültigin and Bilge Kagan inscriptions, Ötüken is emphasized, and it is stated that the Turks took this place as their center and should never leave it.
These monuments provide very important information not only about Ötüken but also in terms of understanding Turkish history and culture. The monuments belonging to Kültigin and Bilge Kagan, written by the Turks with their unique alphabet, were found by NM Yadrintsev, who was sent to Mongolia by the Russian Geographical Society to do research in 1889, 360 km west of Ulan Bator, on the shore of the Orhon River, near Koşo-Çaydam Lake. . The inscriptions of Bilge Tonyukuk, an important statesman who lived in the same period, were found by Y. N. Klements in 1897 in a place called Bain-Tsokto, close to Nalayh Town, about 60 km east of Ulan Bator.
The writings on these monuments were deciphered after a while, but the location of Ötüken, whose importance was strongly emphasized in these writings, could not be fully understood. Every researcher working on the monuments in question thought about where Ötüken was and generally focused on the Orhon River and around Koşo Çaydam Lake, where the Köl Tigin and Bilge Kagan inscriptions are found. However, there were also those who put forward different ideas.
For example, according to Kaşgarlı Mahmut in the 11th century, Ötüken; It is the name of a place in the Tatar deserts, close to the Uighur country. According to E. Hirth, Ötüken is the Karakoram Mountains or Ho-lin-shan in Chinese. by Thomsen and H. Cordier It is claimed that Ho-Lin or Ha-la Ho-lin, which has been explored in detail, is the snowfall of Karakorum, which the Mongols call Harhorin today. However, when we look at the Göktürk inscriptions, it is understood that this region was not Ötüken, although it was the place where Kutluk took shelter for a while.
The monuments remaining from the Uyghur Khanate, another Turkish state that was founded after the Göktürks and made Ötüken the capital, do not match with the claim of the Karakorum region. In the Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions; “The northwest end of Yaylam Ötüken is at the source of the Tes River. East, Hanuy and Hunüy Rivers.” is called. From this sentence, we can understand that Ötüken is in the south of the Hanuy or Hünüy Rivers. According to the Uighur inscriptions, As Önüz is in the middle of Ötüken.
Erhan Aydın says that this place may be Otgon Tenger Mountain in the Otgon region, which is considered sacred by the Mongols, that this region contains several more peaks around it, and that Ötüken may be the place that houses these peaks. Erol Kürkçüoğlu, on the other hand, claims that Ötüken may be the region stretching from Tolga and Baykal to the Altays and that its center may be the Orhun Valley.
It follows from all these explanations that Ötüken is a name given to a large region. However, it should not be understood from this result that the state did not have a fixed capital and that the state administration moved in this large region due to the nomadic lifestyle. In any case, while Bilge Kagan was talking about the place of the Kultigin Monument; “Since this is a close (one) location, and also an easily accessible (one) place, I had the eternal stone engraved in such an easily accessible (one) place, I had it written.” says. Proximity meant here should be the proximity to where he or she is. Even if Ötüken is a name given to a large region, these expressions also point to the existence of a fixed place, that is, a capital, where the state administration is located in this region.
As a matter of fact, according to the writings of the Eastern Roman Empire embassy delegations who went to meet with Attila, the greatest khan of the European Hun Empire, who had a similar lifestyle and state structure, Attila also had a fixed capital. Although this capital is not a city surrounded by walls, it is a fixed center where the state is governed. There are not only tents but also wooden houses here. It is even said that Attila had a wooden palace, but because he liked to stay in a tent, he had a tent set up for himself in the garden of this palace.
From the names of many villages in Anatolia today, it is understood that nomadic Turkish tribes have a fixed center where they return to at least in winter months, although they move with their animals in a wide region. This center is defined as the “oba” and is not completely emptied even as the herds roam over a large area. Over time, with the increase of permanent houses, Obas turned into villages and towns that are known by names such as Sazoba, Beyoba or Çınaroba.
It seems plausible that the Göktürk and Asian Hun Empires also had such a fixed center. Bilge Kagan's words mentioned above also confirm this. If archaeological excavations are made, it is possible to determine where this place is. Because where and how the human communities who lived in the oldest ages lived can be determined from the simple bone and stone tools they left behind. It is highly probable that the Huns, Gokturks and Uyghurs, who manufactured and used highly advanced weapons and tools for the period they lived, left a lot of material in the center of their state.
They must also have built cemeteries for the deceased and erected stones marking the location of the graves. Because it is understood from the historical records that the Turks gave great importance to the tombs and marked them with stone or wood and protected them for years. For example, when the Mongols broke the stones of the Hun tombs marked in this way and scattered the tombs, the Huns were very angry that "the graves of our ancestors were insulted" and the Hun army went on a punishing campaign against the Mongols. In this expedition, the Mongol tribes who destroyed the tombs were severely punished.
In summary, if archaeological excavations are carried out, it is possible to identify the place that the Göktürks, Huns and Uyghurs used as the state center (capital) and which is considered a holy place. It shouldn't be too hard to pinpoint where this capital city is. Research should be carried out in the region called Ötüken and whose borders are more or less known. It is understood from the words of the wise khan that this capital is named after the Ötüken region in which it is located and that it is close to the Kültigin and the monuments erected in his name.
This place must be explored and found. Doing this is the historical responsibility of all Turkish states. It is mostly the debt of the Republic of Turkey, which takes its name from the Göktürks. Because, although historians misjudged the expressions in the inscriptions and recorded the name of the state as Göktürk, later researches showed this. revealed that the name of the state was the Turkish Khaganate.
If this is done, it is certain that there will be many findings about Turkish history and culture that have never been encountered or even predicted. Because the same region has been used as a center for centuries, it will be possible to determine all the processes of the historical development of Turkish society and Turkish culture from different objects buried in the ground in every period.

REFERENCES:
AYDIN ​​Erhan; Orhon Inscriptions, Köl Tegin, Bilge Kagan, Tonyukuk, Ongi, Küli Çor, Bilge Culture and Arts Publishing House, 3rd Edition, Istanbul, 2019.
CELIK, Muhammed Bilal; Pre-Islamic Turkish History and Culture, Nobel Publishing, Ankara, 2018.
KAFESOGLU, Ibrahim; Turkish National Culture, Ötüken Publications, 44th Edition, Istanbul, 2019.
KÜRKÇÜOĞLU, Erol; Political History of the Turks, III BC-XII BC, Bilge Culture and Art Publishing, 2nd Edition, Istanbul, 2019.
TAŞAĞIL, Ahmet; First Empire of the Steppes, Huns, Yeditepe Publishing House, Istanbul, 2020.