Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that the battle of Manzikert opened the doors to the political sovereignty of the Turks over Anatolia.
Erdogan’s speech came within the framework of his participation in the state of Mush (east) in the celebrations of the 952nd anniversary of the Seljuk victory over Byzantium in the year 1071 AD.
He said: “We have been here for a long time, but Manzikert opened the doors of political sovereignty in Anatolia for us, and the victory in the battle dealt the biggest blow to the Crusades after it paved the way for the establishment of the Anatolian Seljuk state first, and then with the successful struggles of the Ottoman state that raised the flag endowed with the same Faith also led to this victory in the conquest of the Balkans and Istanbul.
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He added, “This (the Battle of Manzikert) is the starting point for the series of victories that brought us to the gates of Vienna,” referring to the Ottomans’ campaigns to annex Austria to the empire in the sixteenth century.
Expressing his pride in the cohesion of the Turkish people, he said: “This land is blessed and blessed with calls, O God, in the name of God, God is great, which has been exalted in its sky for a thousand years, and that the people living above it are mutually supportive and united around the same lofty goal, regardless of their origins, temperaments, and differences.”
The Battle of Manzikert took place on August 26, 1071, in which the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan defeated the Byzantine army led by Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes.
The victory of the Seljuks led by Alp Arslan opened the way for the Turks to advance in Asia Minor, which is now known as Turkey, and marked a historic turning point in the region.
