Sule Yildiz, Head of department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey
For the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, jointly with the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, is taking part in the 7th International Book Fair.
There are 22 publishers presented in our stand; these departments exhibit their developments and participate in meetings with Azerbaijani colleagues. Our ministry today presents its own books, as well as about two thousand works published in Turkey. In total, there are about five thousand books on our stand.
Moreover, we present a new large-scale project “TEDA” (Türkiye Edebiyatının Dışıl Açılımı). As part of this project, foreign publishers translate into their own language the works published in Turkey, and receive from us the profit for the cost of publishing and translation. Here at the exhibition we are acquainted with the Azerbaijani publishing houses with this project, so that they could also use them by translating Turkish works into the Azerbaijani language.
Also, we have prepared a very interesting literary and cultural programme to tell about our publishing activities, and have invited writers of juvenile literature. On the 9th of October, we will host an exhibition and invite Ercan Kesal, who will tell about his new film and book, as well as hold an autograph session at Baku Book Center.
Yesterday we had an event dedicated to modern Turkish and Azerbaijani poetry. We have very big plans for the upcoming year with all the publishers present, and even more meetings with Azerbaijani publishers. If we again participate in the exhibition in co-operation with the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, we will be able to implement more large-scale events.
We like the fair very much; we are pretty much satisfied. The possibility of holding a book fair in the traditional format was filled with the energy of writers, publicists and organisers. Therefore, I consider that the conduct of such fairs is cognitive and important.