The Diplomat
In the framework of the Culture Week of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Organization of Turkish States, on Tuesday, 15 October the Embassy of Azerbaijan in collaboration with the host University held the conference Cultural Heritage of the Turkic World.
In her opening speech, Elena Sánchez de Madariaga, Vice Dean of Quality at the Faculty of Education, Sports and Interdisciplinary Studies said “the assurance that holding a conference devoted to the Turkic world would contribute to Turkic studies in Spain”.
Then the video-messages of the guests of honor – Hasan Hasanov, member of the Council of the Organization of Turkic States, and Aktoty Raimkulova, president of the Foundation for Turkic Culture and Heritage were transmitted.
In his message, Hasan Hasanov gave a brief historical overview of the Turkic peoples, from the first state formations to the 1990s when Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan restored their independence. Road leading to the establishment of the Organization of Turkish States in the Azerbaijani city of Najichevan. Hasan Hasanov and Aktoty Raimkulova, who in his speech reported on the initiatives of the Foundation for Turkic Culture and Heritage for the preservation of Turkic culture, expressed the confidence that holding conferences devoted to the study of the Turkic World would lead to “establishment of mutually advantageous inter-university relations”.
The following presentations were made by Jesus Gil Fuensanta, doctor of archaeology and prehistory at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and secretary general of the Spanish Association of Orientalists, who spoke in the lecture Human evolution in the cave of Azij and other milestones of prehistory: Azerbaijan within the framework of academic geopolitics, paying special attention to the results of excavations in the caves of Azij, the most important monument of Stone Age in Azerbaijan.
The paper Vision of Turkish-Islamic architecture from Anatolia to Central Asia was presented in online format by Ayşe Ersay Yüksel, Assistant Professor, Director of the Department of History of Turkic Islamic Arts at the Faculty of Theology of Ankara University.
Rena Gafarova Zahrabova, PhD in Philology from the Complutense University, professor of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos intervened with the lecture Book of my grandfather Gorgud (Kitabí Dedé Gorgúd): shared cultural heritage that consolidates the Turkic peoples. The paper analysed the plot, composition, mythological elements of the 15th century Turkish heroic epic and contemporary works.
With the paper Neither troubadour nor jongleur: The aşık in the 20th century in Turkey, forms, validity and fundamental figures, with the fragments of the musical interpretation of the aşıkes, intervened Sara Islán Fernández, doctor in Musicology, Professor of Music and Dance in Turkey at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid.
Irina Kunina, PhD in International Relations, delivered her online paper Guidelines of the cultural diplomacy of the Organization of Turkish States: Azerbaijan from the Baku International Center for Multiculturalism. And finally the doctoral student of the University of Granada, Hilola Ruzieva, spoke with the presentation Popular stories as a reflection of Uzbek values.
