Baku, November 3, AZERTAC

In 2016 “TEAS Press” Publishing house published the works of the great Kazakh thinker and public and political figure, Kazakh people’s writer, literary scholar and poet Oljas Suleymenov in various languages.

These include such scientific research works as “Az i Ya”, “Clay book”, “The code of the word”, “Turks before the history”, collection of poetries named “Smile of god”, as well as the book talking about the life and activity of Suleymanov named “Oljas phenomenon”. These works translated into Azerbaijani, Turkish, and English and published gracefully by the “TEAS Press” Publishing House on the occasion of Oljas Suleymenov’s 80th anniversary, covers all aspects of varied and original creations of the outstanding thinker.

Oljas Suleymanov is included to the list of 22 great thinkers of the world and was granted higher state awards in Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Oljas Suleymenov’s works on history, etymology, linguistics, researches in the field of Turkic and Slavic nations, his scientific essays that created serious resonance in the scientific circles brought him great popularity in Eurasia. However, the scientific activity of the prominent scholar did not always gain respect and appreciation. In the Soviet period Oljas Suleymanov was subjected to persecution, his works were banned, his books were eliminated from sale and libraries, publishing of his books was prohibited. For example, after publication of the Oljas Suleymanov’s work named “Az i Ya” that was a product of the historical and linguistic research conducted during many years, in 1975, it created a great resonance not only in the former USSR, but also in the whole world, and it was name “Soviet bestseller” by the Western critics. Being a absolutely new and extraordinary approach to the history, language and culture of the Turkic and Slavic peoples, the work caused a great interest in the whole world.

In general, the creative activity of Oljas Suleymenov has always been distinct with its richness, historicity and innovativeness. As the literature critics are also specially emphasize Oljas Suleymenov is not just a thinker of one period, one era or a certain area. He is not concerned with the issues related to just one time interval, limited geography or the problems of one nation. He “often likes to go beyond the history and the boundaries of the concept of national culture.” Even when the writer wrote about his home, motherland, first love, any ecological problem, even when he went down to the depth of the historical layers to research the origins of the language and culture, when he looked for the code of the word, when he tried to find out the historical ties that bring together the nations and cultures, he had only one aim - understanding everything good that is owned by a human, embracing them, their review and evaluation.

In this meaning, Oljas Suleymenov is a person of peerless thought. The creative activity of the writer who promoted and advocated the national and universal values in his works by means of unique literary and philosophical descriptions, who did not oppose them to each other and even instead showing how close they are to each other, is of particular relevance in the age of globalization, in the contemporary period when the role of the system of multicultural values comes to the fore.

When “TEAS Press” Publishing House translated the books of Oljas Suleymenov and published them in various languages, it took into account all of these and the fact that the literary and scientific works of the writer are still objective and relevant in our days. We hope that these books initially published in Russian, will play a role of an interesting source for the historians, linguists, Turkologists, Slavicists, mythologists, etymologists and the broad reader audience interested in the history of the human civilization who are still not acquainted with these works because of the language barriers.

By the way, the books listed above will be interesting for the readers not only from the point of view of idea, scientific and artistic meaning, but also, as all other books published by the publishing house, being a product of the modern printing technology they attract attention with their high level of design and extreme elegance and are interesting not only for their content but also for their appearance.