Halil İnalcık Receives TÜRKSOY Medal of Honor
Professor Halil İnalcık, renowned historian and founder of Bilkent University's Department of History, was awarded the TÜRKSOY Medal of Honor during a ceremony held at the Ankara State Museum of Painting and Sculpture on February 16 last week. The award recognized his vast and diverse contribution to historical scholarship, which has been illuminating many facets of the Turkic world and its culture for more than three-quarters of a century. As part of its mission of promoting and transmitting Turkic culture throughout the world and to future generations, TÜRKSOY (International Organization of Turkic Culture) awards its Medal of Honor to individuals who have made significant contributions to these ends.
The ceremony opened with speeches by TÜRKSOY Secretary General Düsen Kaseinov and Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertuğrul Günay. Prof. İnalcık was then invited on stage, and the secretary general and the minister presented him with the medal. Prof. İnalcık's acceptance speech, while perhaps short in duration, succeeded as always in captivating his listeners. When he mentioned that he had sat in the very seats they were now occupying, to attend lectures as a student at Ankara University's Faculty of Language, History and Geography in 1935 -- sessions watched by Atatürk from the presidential balcony above -- those in the room were reminded that they were in the company of not only the "Hocaların Hocası" (the Professor of the Professors) as Mr. Günay called him, or the greatest living Ottomanist, as Mr. Kaseinov pointed out, but also an individual in whom history has found embodiment.
The panel discussion that followed transformed the proceedings from an award ceremony into a celebration of Prof. İnalcık and his work. Chairing the panel, Prof. Talat Sait Halman, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Letters at Billkent, spoke first, and also read some of the poetry Prof. İnalcık had shared with him over the years. Prof. İlber Ortaylı, head of the Topkapı Palace Museum, who spoke next, expressed the idea that the supremacy of Prof. İnalcık's work and historical methodology originated not merely in his discipline and tenacity, but also in an acute curiosity, which served as the source of the rigor, precision and detail to be found in his works.
Department of History Chair Dr. Mehmet Kalpaklı noted that Bilkent University's decision to offer Prof. İnalcık the task of founding a history department had been invaluable in continuing the school of historical discourse associated with this eminent scholar worldwide. The panel and the event came to an end with Dr. Özlem Kumrular (Bahçeçehir University) reading a letter that Prof. Heath W. Lowry of Princeton University had written for the occasion.