When Did Turkey Become Korea's 'Brother Nation'?

Descendants of the Goguryeo Ally 'Dolgoel Tribe'
Also Connected as One of the Four Major Participants in the Korean War

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Park] "We will mobilize all possible means to help T?rkiye, the brother country bound by blood in the Korean War" (President Yoon Suk-yeol, on Twitter on the 7th)

"Korea and T?rkiye are brother countries who went through war together" (Sali Murat Tamer, Turkish Ambassador to Korea, at the emergency relief team departure ceremony on the 7th)

Relief efforts from around the world are reaching T?rkiye, where the worst earthquake of magnitude 7.8 occurred. Korea is also sending an emergency relief team (KDRO) of about 110 people, the largest single dispatch ever, which arrived locally on the 8th to carry out search and rescue and medical personnel duties.

Since when did Korea and T?rkiye become brother countries?

As President Yoon mentioned, T?rkiye was one of the four major countries that participated in the Korean War. At that time, T?rkiye was not only the first to respond to Korea's call for participation but also the country that dispatched the fourth largest number of troops after the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The Turkish government initially planned to send 5,000 troops, but under the slogan "Let's help our brother country," 14,936 volunteer soldiers gathered, resulting in the dispatch of such a large force. The number of war dead enshrined at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Nam-gu, Busan, is the second highest after the United States.

The most plausible theory behind T?rkiye becoming our brother country is the history of the Goguryeo-Turkic alliance. The old name of T?rkiye, Turkey (Turk), is written in Chinese characters as '돌궐' (Dolgeol), which is relatively familiar to us. The Turkic Khaganate was a nomadic state established on the Central Asian steppes, which formed an alliance with the neighboring Goguryeo and maintained close relations. The two countries even formed a coalition army to fight against the Tang dynasty forces.

Based on this history, Korea and T?rkiye have maintained close and friendly relations and exchanges. After the armistice agreement in 1953, the Korean government designated T?rkiye as a "top priority diplomatic partner" and established diplomatic relations in 1957. Seoul City formed a sister city relationship with Ankara, the capital of T?rkiye, in 1971, creating Ankara Park in Yeongdeungpo-gu, and Gyeonggi Province and Istanbul have maintained a friendship exchange agreement since 2012.

In a friendly atmosphere, the two countries have also strengthened their friendship through sports. The two nations faced each other in the third-place match of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, and at that time, there was a public opinion online that since Korea and Turkey are brother countries, both should be supported. The Korean football team supporters, the "Red Devils," displayed the Turkish flag in the stands as a ceremony of friendship.

When the two countries met in the women's volleyball quarterfinals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a donation campaign for T?rkiye, which was suffering great damage from wildfires, took place. In that match, the Korean women's volleyball team defeated T?rkiye 3-2 in sets to advance to the semifinals, and Korean volleyball fans launched a campaign to donate saplings in the name of team captain Kim Yeon-koung or "Team Korea."