Addressing a ceremony commemorating the 951st anniversary of the Manzikert Victory, Erdoğan said: “The Manzikert is a victory of not only Turks but of the whole Islamic World and Muslims as well. The Manzikert is the mother and the prolific spring of and the first step towards all the other victories we have had in our geography.”

“It is not for nothing that we so keenly concentrate on the Manzikert and work strenuously to explain this victory to our youth while there are countless other victories in the Turkish history. The reason is that the Manzikert is a victory of not only Turks but of the whole Islamic World and Muslims as well. The Manzikert is the mother and the prolific spring of and the first step towards all the other victories we have had in our geography,” said Erdoğan.

The Battle of Manzikert occurred on August 26, 1071 between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuk Turkish forces led by Alp Arslan, resulting in the defeat of the Byzantine Empire and the capture of Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes.

Manzikert was not a terrible defeat in terms of casualties or immediate territorial loss, but as a psychological blow to Byzantine military prowess and the sacred person of the emperor, it would resound for centuries and be held up as the watershed after which the Byzantine Empire fell into a long, slow, and permanent decline. (ILKHA)