This paper deals with the role of translations in the formation of national identity. It focuses on the dynamic function of the literary and scientific translations as the core of cultural identity. It extends from the times of a nomadic tribe in the Asian Steppes to the foundation and collapse of an Empire in Anatolia, which was composed of different races and religions. The social, cultural and political effects of translations have been put under the microscope to disclose how cultural traits and foreign influences from the West and the East welded into each other to give birth to a contemporary nation in the first half of the twentieth century.