Issue 90 · Summer 2019

Dear Readers,

First of all, I’d like to share the good news. The impact factor of our journal in 2018 was published in the Journal Citation Report. Accordingly, our impact factor, which was 0.087 in 2017, was 0.132 in the year of 2018 report. Thereby, compared to the previous year, the impact factor of bilig has increased by 52%.

The impact factor of 2018 is calculated by dividing the number of citations to articles published in 2016 and 2017 in the journals that are scanned by SSCI by the total number of articles published within these two years. When it is taken into consideration that the number of articles, published in each issue does

not exceed 10 in recent period and the increasing trend in our citation number, it could be stated that bilig’s impact factor will increase steadily in the coming years. We are delighted to observe the fruits of our efforts to strengthen the status of bilig in SSCI. This result is ultimately shared by first of all our dear authors, then our Editorial Board that works in a highly transparent and professional manner, and perhaps more than all, the Head of the Board of Trustees who has a great share in providing a free and independent working environment to the bilig Editorial Board by overcoming all kinds of interventions and demands from outside.

The publication of the 90th issue of bilig is another development we are proud to announce. These 90 issues, which have been going on since 1996, to the present day, without delaying publication date, making compromises of the SSCI criteria and adapting to ever-increasing competition conditions, are another indicator of the institutionalization and respectability of bilig.

When the new issues reach you, we have largely finalized the preparations for our next issue. However, this time we will be looking forward to your contributions as we have determined a special edition topic. The October 2019 issue of bilig will be published titled as “the Integration of Turkish Republics in the 10th Anniversary of the Turkish Council”. Please don’t be late to submit your precious articles regarding this topic.

There are 10 valuable articles in our 90th issue. Bagdaulet Sizdikov’s article dealing with, living in Eurasia and called mounted nomadic tribes, the Scythians and Sarmats’ metal armor as a defense weapon and the techniques which they developed in this field, is striking. The article prepared by Sizdikov’ by making use of archaeological data and written sources, supports the theses in Kazakhstan’s Founding President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s article “Seven Facets of the Great Steppe”.

Nuri Korkmaz, in his article, comparatively analyzes the problems faced by the Turkish / Muslim minority in Bulgaria and Greece during the Cold War period. Even though they lived in two different countries and in different political systems under the Cold War conditions, the Turkish / Muslim minority in Greece and Bulgaria encountered similar difficulties relating to protecting their identity and culture and they were exposed to similar pressures.

I wish our 90.th issue that includes articles on interesting topics such as “Turkey’s May 27, 1960 Coup Through the French Diplomatic Reports”,” Linguistic Landscape”, “Peculiarities of Seasonal Migration of The Kazakhs”, “The Governance of the Creative Industries in the Turkish World” will be of use.

Best Regards,

Prof. Dr. Fırat Purtaş

Editor in Chief