The international scientific symposium entitled “Spiritual Integration of the Turkic Peoples: Language, Literature, and Culture” was held in Sinop, Türkiye, on September 24-25, 2026, hosted by Sinop University. The symposium was dedicated to the study, from various perspectives, of the common language, cultural heritage and spiritual values of the Turkic peoples, as well as issues related to folklore, literature, history, identity and cultural memory.

Employees of the Institute of Folklore of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences also participated in the symposium. PhD, Associate Professor Maleyka Mammadova made a presentation entitled “The Magic of the Word in Marriage Rites of Passage: The Language of Prayers, Curses and Intentions in Azerbaijani and Anatolian Cultures”. The presentation was delivered at the scientific panel entitled “Folklore, Belief, Ritual and Cultural Memory”.

PhD, Associate Professor Elchin Galiboglu participated in the symposium online. He delivered a presentation entitled “Narrative Accounts about Kalvali Ali Dede, a Master of the Azerbaijani Zurna-Balaban Tradition”.

The presentations were met with considerable interest by the participants.

It should be noted that the two-day symposium featured 97 participants. The participants represented 10 countries: Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden and Pakistan.