The annual reports for 2025 of the departments operating in the field of scientific-theoretical and practical issues of folklore studies were discussed at the expanded meeting of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Folklore of ANAS. At the meeting, held in a hybrid format, along with the members of the Scientific Council, the staff of the institute actively participated in the discussion of reports, presenting the scientific and scientific-organizational activities of the departments, research conducted and published works, as well as the results of international cooperation.

At the meeting, Leyla Mammadova, Head of the Department of Folklore and Written Literature, Doctor of Sciences in Philology, presented the report of the department for 2025. She mentioned that 1 Doctor of Sciences in Philology and 9 Doctors of Philosophy in Philology work in the department, which covered the theoretical and methodological aspects of the relationship between folklore and written literature, the study of folk culture in various periods and genres of Azerbaijani literature. She also noted that in 2025, a total of 50 scientific articles were published by the employees of the department, 10 of which were published in foreign journals. In addition, department employees had made reports at a total of 32 scientific conferences during the year, 13 of which were abroad. Department members presented more than 20 reports, bringing to scientific discussion topics such as Azerbaijani dramaturgy, theoretical aspects of the interaction between folklore and written literature, ashug poetry and so on.

Then, the activities of the Department of Ceremonial Folklore and National Culinary Traditions of the Institute of Folklore of ANAS for 2025 and the important results achieved were presented. The head of the department, Doctor of Sciences in Philology, Associate Professor Agaverdi Khalil noted that this year, by the relevant decision of the Presidium of ANAS, the research directions of the department were slightly expanded, the national culinary traditions, which were an integral part of ceremonial folklore, were also brought into the spotlight. In general, in 2025, the department carried out the researches in the areas of ceremonial folklore of the Turkic peoples, holiday culture, traditional ceremonies of Western Azerbaijan, ceremonial folklore and Islam and published a monograph entitled “The Distribution Area of the Epic “Tahir and Zohra”, as well as the 3rd volume of the book “Traditions of Ceremonial Folklore”. In total, 29 articles were published by the employees of the department, 6 of which were published abroad.

Later, the report on the scientific and scientific-organizational activities of the Department of Folklore Theory for 2025 was presented by the head of the department, Doctor of Sciences in Philology, Professor Fuzuli Bayat. The scientist noted that in accordance with the relevant decision of the Presidium of ANAS, the name and direction of the activities of the department were changed, the attention was paid to expanding theoretical aspects, along with modern folklore research. In total, 9 scientific articles were published by the employees of the department, participation in 12 conferences was ensured.

At the meeting the report on the scientific and organizational activities of the Department Ashiq Creativity for 2025 was made. Presenting the report of the department for the current year, leading researcher, Doctor of Philosophy in Philology Tajir Gurbanov provided extensive information about the theoretical research, collection materials, scientific articles, books and projects conducted during the year. At the same time, the parallels between mythology and epic thought were studied, a comparative analysis of Turkic and Chuvash mythological traditions was conducted, the motifs of Dede Gorgud and the transformation of epic heroes were studied.