Addressing the ‘Yunus Emre Year: Award Ceremony for the Proper Use of Turkish in Audio and Visual Media,’ Erdoğan said: “Nations that fail to preserve their languages are doomed to go extinct eventually, losing all the constituent values of their identity one by one, their faith included. That is why we always put the language first. We cannot look to the future with confidence as a nation if we fail to preserve Turkish, our language.”

Erdoğan emphasized the importance of language, literature, and culture in terms of the survival of nations, and said: “Nations that fail to preserve their languages are doomed to go extinct eventually, losing all the constituent values of their identity one by one, their faith included. That is why we always put the language first. We cannot look to the future with confidence as a nation if we fail to preserve Turkish, our language. The media serve as the primary means by which our language is preserved and passed on to next generations correctly. The media exercise due diligence in using Turkish correctly and I offer my gratitude to anyone who makes efforts in this regard.” (ILKHA)