As part of the VIII International Symposium “From the Common Turkic Past to the Common Turkic Future,” organized by the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) and the Institute of Folklore ANAS, the fifth panel session, titled “Turkic Folklore in the Age of Digitalization: The Emergence and Transmission of Folkloric Thought on Digital Platforms and in New Media Environments”, was held on the 2^nd of July. The session was moderated by Professor Fuzuli Bayat and Associate Professor Khalil Chetin from the Institute of Turkological Studies at Khoja Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University.

The panel focused on new directions in the development of Turkic folklore in the digital era, including urban folklore, digital folklore archives, socio-anthropological approaches, the representation of the ashiq tradition on digital platforms, the preservation of collective memory and the ways folklore continues to exist and evolve within contemporary communication environments.

The first presentation was delivered by Professor Fuzuli Bayat, Head of the Department of Folklore Theory at the Institute of Folklore ANAS, on the topic “Contemporary Urban Folklore: Invented Traditions, Social Habitus and Collective Memory”.

Associate Professor Khalil Chetin from the Institute of Turkological Studies at Khoja Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University presented a paper entitled “From Oral Tradition to Digital Memory: A Common Turkic Folklore Archive”.

Associate Professor Ulker Aliyeva, PhD in Philology and Leading Researcher at the Department of Folklore and Written Literature of the ANAS Institute of Folklore, delivered a presentation on the theme “The Problem of Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication in Urban Folklore”.

PhD in Philology and Leading Researcher at the Department of the Folklore of Ethnic Minorities of the ANAS Institute of Folklore Vusal Safiyeva presented a paper titled “The Socio-Anthropological Aspect of the Folklore of Turkic Peoples”.

The next presentation was made by Associate Professor Ilhama Gasabova,  PhD in Philology and Leading Researcher at the Department of Mythology of the ANAS Institute of Folklore, on the theme “The Creativity of Young Ashiqs on Digital Platforms and the Preservation of Classical Symbols.”

Amil Azimli, a doctoral student at the Institute of Folklore ANAS, presented his paper “Outlaw Folklore in the Socio-Cultural Life of the People”, in which he analyzed the role of the outlaw movement in the people’s struggle for freedom and the formation of national self-awareness.

Associate Professor Meleyke Mammadova, PhD in Philology and Leading Researcher at the Department of Mythology of the ANAS Institute of Folklore, made a presentation entitled “Rituals of Protection from Mythological Beings in Birth Transition Ceremonies”.

The final presentation of the panel was delivered by Associate Professor Chichak Afandiyeva, PhD in Philology and Leading Researcher at the Department of Folklore Theory of the ANAS Institute of Folklore.

The panel concluded with extensive discussions on the contemporary development of urban folklore, the preservation and presentation of folklore heritage on digital platforms, socio-anthropological approaches, the continuation of the ashiq tradition in digital environments, the communicative functions of folklore, contemporary research on traditional rituals and beliefs, as well as the cognitive and conceptual analysis of epic narratives.