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 ninth panel session titled “The Turkic World in Comparative Folklore Studies: Theoretical and Methodological Issues and Research Perspectives”, was held on the 3^rd of July. The session, hosted in the Mahmud Kashgari Hall, was moderated by Associate Professor Şakir Albalıyev, Doctor of Sciences in Philology and leading researcher at the Institute of Folklore ANAS.

The panel addressed current scholarly issues related to the theoretical and methodological foundations of comparative folklore studies, the shared mythological heritage of the Turkic peoples, ritual and ceremonial traditions, epic folklore, ethnolinguistic characteristics, shadow theatre, archetypes and the comparative analysis of regional folklore traditions.

In his presentation, Associate Professor Shakir Albaliyev, Doctor of Sciences in Philology and leading researcher at the Institute of Folklore ANAS, spoke on “The Problem of Divergent Meanings in Conventional Speech Etiquette” analyzing the semantic differences in speech etiquette across various Azerbaijani dialects and subdialects and their impact on communication.

Associate Professor Elnara Huseyngizi-Amirli from the Institute of Folklore ANAS presented a paper entitled “Three Deer Constellation in the Folklore of the Turkic Peoples”.

Surayya Alizade, PhD in Philology and senior researcher at the Institute of Folklore ANAS, made a presentation on the theme “Typological Similarities between the “Karagoz” and “Khayal al-Zill Shadow Plays” highlighting the common characteristics, historical development and cultural connections of these two shadow theatre traditions.

Dzhala Naghiyeva, a researcher at Baku State University, presented a paper titled “A Typological Analysis of Archetypes in Azerbaijani and Kyrgyz Epic Folklore”.

The final presentation of the panel was delivered by Ilaha Gurbanova, researcher at the Institute of Folklore ANAS, on the theme “A Comparative-Typological Analysis of the Tabriz and Khorasan Folklore Traditions”.

The panel concluded with a broad exchange of views on theoretical approaches to comparative folklore studies, the study of the shared mythological and cultural heritage of the Turkic peoples, the interrelationships among regional folklore traditions and contemporary methodological perspectives in folklore research.