The Founding of the Turkic Studies Journal

The establishment of the international academic journal “Turkic Studies Journal” was a natural outcome of the long-term development of Turkic Studies at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, as well as within the wider Eurasian academic community.

Kazakhstan occupies a unique position in the history and contemporary landscape of the Turkic world. For millennia, its territory has been a zone of intense cultural interaction, migration and nomadic civilization formation, playing a significant role in Eurasian historical processes. This historical legacy has generated sustained scholarly interest in the study of Turkic historical and cultural heritage, stimulating the development of Turkic studies in national research centers.

L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University is one of the region's leading research and educational centers for Turkic studies. The university has established a recognized academic school specializing in the study of Turkic written monuments, as well as the languages and cultures of Turkic peoples. The university is home to the Centre for Turkic and Altaic Studies, the Department of Turkology and the Museum of Turkic Writing. The university offers degree programs in “Turkology” at three levels of higher education (Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral studies) and carries out national and international research projects. It also regularly hosts academic conferences attended by scholars from various countries.

Prior to the establishment of the journal, the proceedings of these conferences were published as separate edited volumes. However, the expansion of international academic cooperation and the growing number of collaborative research projects demonstrated the need for a permanent scholarly platform dedicated to sustained academic dialogue and the regular publication of contemporary research in Turkic Studies.

The existence of a specialized department, research units and a professional community of Turkologists established a stable academic infrastructure, rendering the creation of an international, peer-reviewed journal the next logical step in the institutional development of this field. State initiatives aimed at studying the historical and cultural heritage of the Great Steppe and the Turkic world also supported the advancement of this area of research, contributing to the creation of the journal.

In 2019, the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan established the international journal “Turkic Studies Journal” at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. After completing the registration procedures with the Ministry of Information and Public Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the journal began publication in the third quarter of 2019.