Institute for Research on Turkish Culture
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The Institute for Research on Turkish Culture (TKAE) is an institution established in 1961. Its research focused on the Turkic world and counted with the support of both the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Intelligence Organization. It has been described as Nationalist and Pan-Turkist institution.[1]
Its origins date back to the 1950s, when an American delegation in Turkey suggested the establishment of a Turkish branch of the Eastern European Institute in Munich.[2] Its aim was to be the research on the Turkic people.[2] In 1960 a commission comprising Ahmet Temir, an Turkilogist born in Kazan, Abidin İtil, an Indologist from Baku and Osman Nedim Tuna, a Turkish linguist of Old Turkic was tasked with preparing the statutes.[2] After they had presented their project to the Ministry of the Interior, it was established in October 1961 as an academic research institution with its publications serving the political right wing as the political establishment at the time worried about a socialist take over.[2] The founding President was Ahmet Temir,[2] Itil became its first director.[3] Membership was initially only reserved to academics with at least a PhD and preferably lecturers in the field.[2] Of the 25 founding members, 15 were of Turkic people out of Turkey (Turkish: dış Türkler) and the others Turkish citizens.[2]