It is with great pleasurc that I accept the kind invilation of the Reetor of Ankara University, Professor Dr. Tahsin Özgüç, lo contribule to the Jubilee Volüme commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Turkish Rcpublic.To be anıong the first group of Western scholar.s appointcd to the newly founded Dil ve Tarih-Coğıafya Fakültesi was a privilege and a great oppor- tunity for me. It was the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Atatürk, who created this Facully and in it, as part of his program, a chair of Hittito- log5'; and the enthusiasm which he instilled in his people and especially in its youth made the tcaching of those ancient languages and civilizations an exci- ting experience.