Turkish Colours: Directions and colors in Turks

23/07/2021

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The West sees the world in two ways, east and west. However, Turks evaluate the world with its five aspects; north, south, east, west and centre. They also expressed them with colors.

To the north, the black, well-known example is the Black Sea. The south direction is red, the known example is the Red Sea. The east direction is symbolized in blue, it is the color of sky. Dedem Korkut refers to the Caspian Sea as Gökçe Lake. The western direction is expressed as the color white, the known example is the Mediterranean.

Black Sea, Mediterranean, Red Sea, Gokce Lake. As it is seen, the Turks expressed the geography with colors, or rather they expressed the directions with colors. However, the orientalist perspective of the West has divided the world into two; east and west.

The West is an exalted value, while the East is a humiliated structure. As it is seen, Turks look at the world in a global sense with all its aspects as a circular circle. There is no east-west distinction in such a place in the Turkish world. The directions have their own meanings and are named according to these meanings.

The color of the sky, symbolized by the East, symbolizes divinity.

The color white, which is symbolized by the West, symbolizes wisdom, as in the example of the bearded. The yellow color in the center symbolizes the soil and wealth. The black color in the north has various meanings, both dark and powerful. The red color in the south symbolizes fire and warmth.

As you can see, no aspect makes sense on its own, it is not good or bad, each aspect has its own meanings. However, the western, orientalist view, glorifies the west and despises the east.

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When you perceive and evaluate the world in this way, your perspective becomes much more universal. The task of the Turks is to explain these unique perspectives to the world.

Turks have colored the geographies they live in and adorned them with colors. In addition, there may be a separate study about these five main colors, which are actually reflected in the place names in the geography of Turkey. The same work can be done for place names in geographies where Turks settled outside of Turkey. In this way, it will become clearer how universal our point of view is, not expressed in a single color, but as a richness of colors.

1926 settlements were found starting with KARA*.

https://nisanyanmap.com/?y=KARA*&lv=&t=&cry=TR&ua=5

1400 settlements found starting with AK*

https://nisanyanmap.com/?y=AK*&lv=&t=&cry=TR&ua=5

487 settlements were found starting with RED*.

https://nisanyanmap.com/?y=KIZIL*&lv=&t=&cry=TR&ua=5

440 settlements starting with GÖK* were found.

https://nisanyanmap.com/?y=G%C3%96K*&lv=&t=&cry=TR&ua=5

Found 528 settlements starting with YELLOW*.

https://nisanyanmap.com/?y=YELLOW*&lv=&t=&cry=TR&ua=5