1000 Manat Gorkut Ata Turkmen

Gorkut Ata — known in wider Turkic tradition as Dede Korkut — is the semi-mythological bard and sage whose oral epic cycle predates Islam's arrival in Central Asia and survives in manuscripts held in Dresden and the Vatican. Turkmenistan's post-independence government invested heavily in reclaiming such figures as national patrimony, and this 2006 issue sits within a broader commemorative program that Ashgabat used to project a distinctly Turkmen cultural identity during the Niyazov era.

The Dresden manuscript, transcribed in the 16th century, remains the most complete source for the Dede Korkut tales.