Under the aegis of the Hungarian – Turkish Cultural Season a Symposium was organized by the National Széchenyi Library that – besides the hosts – was also supported by the Presidential Library in Ankara and the Representation Office of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Budapest. The event held on December 4, 2024 focused on the lifework of Ibrahim Müteferrika, the diplomat born in Transylvania who had founded a printing press. Ambassador Dr. István Vásáry, the Executive Head of the Representation Office also addressed the Symposium.
By holding the Hungarian – Turkish Cultural Season, the two countries commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations. The conference on the life of Ibrahim Müteferrika, focusing on the heritage of the writer publishing in Ottoman Turkish, the diplomat of Hungarian origin and also the printer, fits into this series of events. The products of the first Turkish workshop established by him were both Turkish incunabula and personal Hungarikums at the same time. The lifework of Ibrahim Müteferrika is a bridge between the two countries, the two peoples and nations.
On behalf of the hosts in the National Széchényi Library it was Deputy Director General Judit Gelencsér who welcomed the guests. In her remarks, she stressed that “the Hungarian and Turkish cultures are able to understand each other, and the cultural capital produced in such a way radiates so much energy that requires us to meet. For this reason, it is a great pleasure for the Library to have jointly organized the Symposium. I am certain that during their discussions the speakers of the conference will be able in inspire one another. We have to keep the language leading to each other alive so that the generations coming after us would also be able to talk about the values and the stories that we all share.”
Her Excellency Gülsen Karanis Eksioglu, the Ambassador of Türkiye to Hungary recalled that the Hungarian – Turkish Cultural Season was launched last December when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a visit to Budapest. “Although we had planned a hundred events, today’s Symposium is already number 114. In fourteen different towns in Hungary almost one thousand Turkish artists made performances which were attended by almost one million people,“ pointed out Ambassador Eksioglu. She announced that in our bilateral relations 2025 will be the “Year of Science and Innovation.” In the course of next year a series of events of at least of the high level of today are being planned. In her remarks she also spoke about the important role that Hungary plays in the OTS. She said that the activities of the Representation Office in Budapest make a great contribution to deepening the cooperation among the Turkic nations.
Dr. István Vásáry called Ibrahim Müteferrika an outstanding personality in Turkology who prepared his seventeen publications between 1729 and 1742. The selection of the topics of the works published by the Müteferrika press was determined by the owner’s scientific interest. In the first place, it was works on geography, history, linguistics that were published but there were descriptions of journeys, as well as treaties on politics and philosophy among them.
The Executive Director emphasized that printing in Turkish launched in the third decade of the 18th century occupies a unique place in the cultural relations between Hungary and Türkiye. It is a positive element of the common history of the two peoples that the cultural achievement meant by printing was introduced within the Ottoman Empire by a Hungarian from Transylvania. István Vásáry expressed his hope that next year in Cluj-Napoca, in the town of the birth of Müteferrika a memorial plaque could be unveiled in honor of the scientist and diplomat.
During the one-day Symposium lectures were delivered by Hungarian and Turkish historians. The closing element in the program was a standing reception with informal discussions in the Ybl Villa.