War Games in Old Turks History

 WAR GAMES IN OLD TURKS :

Turks have been, perhaps, the most successful nation in the art of war throughout history. Although this success is of course a genetic predisposition and a God-given talent, it was not revealed without any talent, and the qualification of being a "born soldier" in Turks did not arise without working (without effort). Especially, their success in mounted archery and on foot archery is definitely due to the fact that we work hard to prove our saying "needs make inventions", try different variations, and the phenomenon of being an army-nation, army-state has progressed with socio-cultural transfers in Turkish societies. Of course, we hope that the word army, which was used in the old Turkish states and used in a very different sense from its current meaning, will be understood better by specifying its meaning in our old culture. 

The army in old Turkish culture :

11.01% of the 1299 words in the Orkhon and Yenisey inscriptions, 142 of them, are about military service and war. This is not a coincidence. This alone proves how military service and war are intertwined with Turkish culture.

So why was military service so important in Turkish culture?

Now let's close our eyes for a moment and take a little tour of the steppes of Central Asia with our imagination. Imagine that in the vast Central Asian steppes, in a land of vast deserts and plains, you have to fight and fight your very ancient and powerful enemies, and of course, be able to deal with a nature that is as ruthless as your enemies. The real problem here is not to establish a political or military authority, but rather to exist or to disappear completely. You are in a world where weak societies are either assimilated or destroyed, and strong societies rule as sovereign nations. In desert and steppe conditions, your best friend was none other than your horse and your weapon.

No matter what religion or belief you have at the time, the necessity of this aspect of you is so high that in beliefs against war or hunting, Manichaeism or Buddhism will be two very good examples. Oriented to their culture, in other words, they Turkified. Barthold's statement that "warlike peoples like the Turks can even transform a religion of peace and love into a religion of war" explains it very well.

For this reason, all Turkish peoples, from the youngest to the eldest, from women to men, were subjected to a solid military training and education. Children were trained one-on-one with nature from an early age, and were brought up with military training. Associate Professor. In Erkan GÖKSU's book called Okla Rising Millet, it is stated that some sources state that little children ride on sheep and shoot arrows at birds and mice, and when they grow up, they hunt foxes and rabbits and eat them. In fact, it is written that in some Turkish communities, children are raised and cared for by their families until they reach adolescence, and after they reach puberty, they are taken away from home by giving them bows and arrows.

Although we will briefly touch on the relationship between genetics and cultural transfer in this article, the point we want to emphasize is the most important element that ensures this success, which is the training that is applied by turning it into a game.

Now, let's talk a little bit about the war drills that were made into a game in the old Turkish culture;

Doctor Freiliç and Engineer Raulig gathered these subjects under nine main headings in their works called Turkmen Tribes.

(1) Running (speed on offense, speed on break)

(2) Aiming gestures (to be able to aim in the attack, to aim at the castle, to watch from afar (to watch very carefully))

(3) Captive-taking actions (methods of holding captives, keeping captives in the field, capturing captives during the surrender of an army, capturing a city population, taking captives away, keeping captives, employing copies of captives)

(4) Interaction (mutual conversation) procedures (return officer to a castle, arrival of a response officer from a castle, appointment of a response officer in the battlefield, acceptance of a response officer's image, copy of the response)

(5) Execution of the raid method (implementation of the decision about the raid, determination of the raid site, the execution of the copy of the surveillance site (implementation method), the method to be applied to the people in the raid, the execution of the loot, the copy of the plundered goods' i (the way of gathering), the distribution of the plundered goods (the way of sharing), the dispersal of the looting gang)

(6) Procedures about following the image of thieves (running after them, blocking their way, ambushing, etc.)

(7) Procedures about crossing terrain (river, ditch, overcoming wall)

(8) Methods of ascending to high places

(9) Methods of fighting with the enemy (shield training, archery training, stone throwing training, dagger training, sword training, javelin throwing training, cavalry attack training, kemend throwing training, deceiving the enemy training).