Apart from power lines in the background and cars parked around, the vast plains and parks in Malazgirt and Ahlat, two small towns in eastern Türkiye, are back to their old selves. Just as Ottoman Sultan Alp Arslan and his troops set up their tents before the Battle of Manzikert (Malazgirt) in those towns centuries ago, event organizers installed yurts on the sprawling plains to host visitors.

On Tuesday, celebrations began for the 951st anniversary of the fateful battle between the Seljuks and Byzantine forces. On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other dignitaries are scheduled to attend the festivities.

Events are no longer low-key celebrations in Türkiye, which seeks to embrace its past of victories, from the Seljuk to the Ottoman, with more spectacular celebrations. In the past decade, Malazgirt, now a town in the province of Muş where the battle was fought, and Ahlat, a district of Bitlis province where Turkish forces camped out before the battle, have been at the heart of the events.

In Ahlat, the sprawling 400-acre People’s Garden hosts the outdoor events as well as the events being held in 51 yurts bearing Seljuk motifs. In one corner, sandy tracks host riders dressed in traditional costumes as they reenact horseback archery traditions while visitors can try out traditional archery at a shooting range. At the venue, events are being held honoring ancient Turkic sports, from oil wrestling to cirit, as well as traditional children’s games. Elsewhere, an Ottoman military mehter band play patriotic songs dedicated to armies of the past and the "spirit of Malazgirt."

Though the exact location of the battlefield is still a matter of dispute and subject of an ongoing archaeological study, Malazgirt marks the anniversary at the Malazgirt Battle and Historical National Park in the town. Like Ahlat, Malazgirt hosts sports events, mehter concerts and stunts by archers on horseback.

The battle, which pitted the Seljuk army against the Byzantine army led by Emperor Romanos IV, had a profound impact on both sides. It was a rallying cry for a crusade for Europe against Muslims and a step that paved the way for the small Kayı tribe to evolve into the Ottoman Empire. The battle was actually a result of Byzantine's attempt to stop Sultan Alp Arslan, who was engaged in a campaign against the Fatimid rule in present-day Syria and sought to besiege the cities in present-day Türkiye’s southeast then controlled by Byzantine forces. His campaign prompted the Byzantine Empire, already feeling a threat on its eastern borders, to destroy the Seljuks once and for all.

The Byzantine army far outnumbered the 15,000 soldiers of the sultan but when the two armies confronted each other between Ahlat and Malazgirt, the Seljuk leader was defiant. He is rumored to have worn a white dress resembling a shroud before leading the charge of the army against the Byzantine forces on a Friday, a sacred day for Muslims. The resolve of the Seljuk troops, the ingenious tactic of a fake retreat and surrounding the enemy secretly before showering them with arrows helped the Seljuks’ victory. Romanos IV was taken prisoner but was forgiven by the sultan and set free. Yet, the defeat made him unpopular back in the Byzantine capital and ultimately led to his fall from grace and dethronement. Alp Arslan himself was assassinated about one year after the victory.

The battle also directly resulted in the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire to seek help from the Catholic Vatican. Pope Urban II used Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos' request for military aid to declare, at the Council of Clermont in 1095, a general mobilization of Western Christendom against the Turks who had occupied Anatolia and much of the Middle East. The resulting mass invasion was called the Crusades.

Where it was fought?

Since 2020, researchers endorsed by Ministry of Culture and Tourism search for the remnants of the battlefield and so far, they found several objects related to the battle as well as possible remains of fallen soldiers. They dig out Gezo Düzü, a rural area some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) away from present-day Malazgirt as it is believed to be the place where the battle took place. In two years, they recovered 336 arrows, spears and other metal objects in the area, while work is underway to date them. Professor Adnan Çevik, a scientific advisor to team of researchers, says they are conducting an interdisciplinary study. In June, researchers from 10 universities excavated a site which was marked as a "martyrs' cemetery" on old military maps, some 7.5 kilometers southeast of Malazgirt. Remains in five out of 15 graves show bones were subject to traumatic injuries that likely caused death, Çevik told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Tuesday, pointing out that they might be the remains of soldiers who fought in Malazgirt.