Issue 115 · Autumn 2025

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to present the 115th issue of bilig to you. As the editorial board of a journal ranked in SSCI Q3, we work diligently to bring you the most qualified works that will resonate in the field of social sciences in the Turkic world. The abundance of English articles in this issue may be striking. This can be explained by the increase in English-language articles submitted to the journal. Parallel to the editorial board, our authors also strive to reach a wider audience and receive citations. However, regardless of the language in which it is written, the fundamental criteria for article selection are originality and the level of contribution it offers to the field. bilig also offers numerous examples of articles published in Turkish language with a high impact level.

Another issue that has recently caught our editorial board's attention is that the majority of articles are multi-authored. From the perspective of interdisciplinary studies and scientific collaboration, it is commendable for multiple academics to come together and conduct research. However, multi-authored studies in which the contribution of some authors is vague raise suspicions of ethical violations. “Ghost authorship” is one of the issues to which our editorial board is sensitive in terms of ethical violations. On the other hand, in this “digital age”, seeing high-quality studies conducted jointly by academics from different universities in the Turkic world is gratifying.

Our new issue features an exceptionally rich and diverse content. Türkiye's growing prestige worldwide is a concrete fact due to numerous factors such as its compassionate foreign policy that balances values and interests, development aid, humanitarian aid, educational institutions, tourism, and TV series. Among the factors determining Türkiye's increasing soft power and positive image, the boundless efforts of Turkish NGOs hold a special place. The article by Şehitoğlu and Şahbaz examines Turkey's public diplomacy within the framework of NGOs.

The PRC is not only a global power whose influence in the international system is growing day by day, but also one of the most influential players in the balance of power in Eurasia. The PRC is also a party that must be closely monitored in terms of the future of the Turkic world, which is emerging as a new game changer in the changing world order and the balance of power in Eurasia. Yılmaz and Dosbolov's article analyzes whether there is a risk of falling into a debt trap in the cooperation and partnership that Turkic states have developed with the PRC. Turkic world archaeology is one of the areas that bilig prioritize. However, it is evident that research in this field remains limited. We believe that the article written by Ceylan et al. will be inspiring and encourage further studies. The common point of all the following articles such as “the land system of the Crimean Khanate”, “the impact of the Erasmus program on cultural interaction”, “the relationship between inflation uncertainty and inflation rates in the Turkic republics”, “the comparison of names appearing in Kyrgyz Turkish and Turkish”, and “the 15th-century depictions of Hacı Bektaş” is that they are high-impact studies resulting from the meticulous work of the authors, reviewers, and editorial board.

Our next issue is planned as a Kazakhstan dossier. Unfortunately, we were unable to achieve our goal of publishing a special issue on Kazakhstan, which we announced a year ago, because we received few high-quality articles. However, in the next issue, we will try to highlight Kazakhstan by including 4-5 articles on its history, culture, and current issues. Since bilig magazine is the academic publication of an international university jointly established by Türkiye and Kazakhstan, we started with Kazakhstan. We plan to prepare similar special issues on other Turkic states in upcoming issues.

I wish you a good read and send my regards.

Prof. Dr. Fırat PURTAŞ

Editor-in-chief