President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, "It has been decided to organise a campaign called 'Turkish: World Language' throughout the country and abroad in order to commemorate 2021 as 'Our Yunus', to emphasise the importance of Turkish language, which is the legacy of Yunus Emre, and to ensure its conscious and correct use as the language of civilisation".
President Erdoğan issued a circular regarding the celebration of 2021 as "The Year of Yunus Emre and Turkish Language".
In the circular published in the Official Gazette, President Erdoğan recalled that Yunus Emre, one of the cornerstones of Turkish language and civilisation, was included in the list of commemorations and anniversaries for the year 2021 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the occassion of the 700th anniversary of his death.
Stating that Yunus Emre used the concepts of love for human and nature, tolerance, brotherhood and peace in his poems in the purest form of Turkish and addressed all humanity without making any discrimination between religion, language and race, President Erdoğan said:
"Yunus succeeded in becoming a poet far beyond his age, bringing people together around common values by contributing to world humanism with both the principle of 'looking at 72 different nations with the same eye' and his philosophy built on universal human values.
To present Yunus Emre as a shared value to the humanity of the world and to remind our country once again, it has been decided to organise a campaign called 'Turkish: World Language' throughout the country and abroad in order to commemorate 2021 as 'Our Yunus', to emphasise the importance of Turkish language, which is the legacy of Yunus Emre, and to ensure its conscious and correct use as the language of civilisation."
Events can be held under the auspices of the Presidency
Expressing that the events to be organised within this scope will be carried out with the relevant public institutions and organisations under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's coordination, President Erdoğan announced that the events to be determined by the Presidency could be held under the auspices of the Presidency.
Stating that logos, posters, bulletins, invitations, announcements and similar papers and visual documents related to the events will be determined by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism with the relevant institutions and will be used pursuant to the corporate identity, President Erdoğan said, "The expenses of the projects and events to be organised will be covered by the relevant public institutions and organisations. Within this framework, I submit this for the information of and necessary action by all public institutions and organisations in order to provide all kinds of support, assistance and ease that will be needed to carry out the activities in the best possible manner throughout the year without delay and as a priority".