On October 29, 2025, the Department of Gagauz Philology and History at Comrat State University held the XI Olympiad in Gagauz Language and Culture, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the well-known Turkologist Liudmila Pocrovscaia (1925–2009).
Students from Gagauzia’s lyceums (grades 10–12, two participants from each lyceum) took part in the Olympiad. They registered on the Moodle platform of Comrat State University and completed a trial test. According to the registration list, 11 lyceums participated, with a total of 21 students. All participants successfully completed the program.
Two 45-minute tasks were carried out on the Moodle platform. One team member completed the test “Lyudmila Alexandrovna Pokrovskaya,” while the other simultaneously took the test “The Spiritual Culture of the Gagauz People.” The responses demonstrated that students possess extensive knowledge in Turkology and are well-versed in Gagauz culture, customs, and traditions.
The third task involved presenting a book related to the name of Liudmila Pocrovscaia. Each two-person team, after 20–25 minutes of preparation, presented a 5–7 minute annotation of the book in the Gagauz language, discussing the author, genre, and content, and providing their own comments.
The evaluation committee—composed of Gagauz language teachers (S. Rakovchena, V. Arakelyan, I. Bankova, Güllü Karanfil, and G. Mutaf)—reviewed the results and summarized the outcomes. The jury noted that most of the lyceum students demonstrated a good command of the Gagauz language, could participate in discussions, and clearly express and argue their thoughts. After scoring each student individually, the total team scores were calculated, and the winners were determined.
Results:
-1st place: Team from PU TL, village of Cişmichioi – Elena Sokolova (12th grade), Diana Çolak (10th grade)
-2nd place: Team from PU TL named after M. Guboglo, mun. Ceadîr-Lunga – Ani Uzun (12th grade), Yulia Guboglo (11th grade)
-3rd place: Team from PU TL named after V. Moşkov, mun. Ceadîr-Lunga – Daria Taşoglo (12th grade), Elena Sobor (12th grade)
All participants of the XI Olympiad in “Gagauz Language and Culture” received awards from the jury: diplomas, certificates of participation, works of Gagauz writers, collections of stories and poems, the journal Guguşçuk, a dictionary of linguistic terms, and other gifts.
We invite all lyceum students to take part in the XII Olympiad next year and demonstrate their knowledge of the native language!
