Only those who understand their past can determine their future.

This is the motto that I live by.

Ever since my High School years, I have spent countless days and nights trying to understand my own history. For the longest time, I felt that something was missing in life. Something that I had a deep connection to, but wasn’t able to make out in day-to-day activities.

That “something” was my history: that of my family, of my ancestors, of my people. Growing up, I became increasingly interested in the tales and legends of my ancestors, the Turkic peoples. But I also noticed that no one in my region, within my circle of friends, not in school and not even at university, was either aware of that history nor could be persuaded to inform themselves about it. As I increased my knowledge about them, I told them about it whenever I saw fit. But no one listened. Not a single soul. They always looked away. They did not care.

But they did not understand me, either. From my very first day in Kindergarten, every one around me got the impression that I would be “different”. Not different than themselves, but in comparison to other Turks. Over time, I understood why they might had gotten that impression. At university, I thought that by making the connection between the way I was and the history of other Turkic peoples, they would finally understand why. Regarding ancient traditions, values and such. But again, nobody cared.

That is when I said, “Enough is enough”. I knew that the people in my country of birth would not care. But I needed to know whether anyone else would, in other parts of the world. Thus, I created a weekly blog in late 2019 where I told the history of the Göktürks, the first people to be called “Türk”, in episodic form and in English.

As interest was increasing all over social media, I made a documentary series in 2020, explaining that same history in the form of videos on YouTube. Finally, I published a book in 2022 that summarizes all of the previously obtained information on 193 pages to read and look at.

Since then, KHAN’s DEN has picked up in speed. As it is nearing the 100,000 subscriber mark on YouTube, it’s also gained traction on Instagram, Twitter and even LinkedIn. I finally have the attention that I wanted those many years ago – alas, not for egoistic purposes. My goal is the same as the day when I wrote the first blog entry. 

Therefore, the video documentaries have also tackled new subjects that either affected or were affected by Turkic history. Further, KHAN’s DEN is becoming the place to not only talk about Turkic and Steppe history in a factual matter. I am also working on a novel – well, I’ve been working on it for 10 years! – and even a manga. In both of these projects, ancient and medieval Turkic and Turkish history is being told from a different perspective, painted in a different light, but also understandable by as many people as possible. If there are so many superhero movies and TV shows about ancient Greek, Egyptian or Roman history and as the Chinese and Koreans are publishing one flick after another on Netflix – why not do something about Turkic history, too? How about ancient Turkic mythology? Ancient Turkic tales and folklore? Religion and traditions, epic tales of conquest and tragic tales of defeat?

A fundamental task, I know. It won’t be easy. But understand that when I started writing on the very first blog entry, I neither knew how to cut a video, how to add effects, how to draw historical maps, write a book, manage social media accounts, let alone bring ancient peoples back to life by using AI technology. But I am doing all of this, right now. We are all humans and not machines. But we are also all capable of learning, adapting, and widening our horizon. As my viewers and readers have certainly widened their own horizon about history, I did, too, about the trials and tribulations that go hand in hand with storytelling.

We will see where this story goes. For now, I am but a humble servant of history. I am giving these ancient people, many of whom have been forgotten, a face. Their history must not be lost to the cruel flow of time.