The program organized by the Representation Office of the Turkic Council in Budapest and the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY) in Budapest at the Festival of Crafts on August 21 with the title “Hungarians and Turkic People in the Mirror of the Folk Music of One Another” was a great success with the public. Several artists from Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkey were performing on the stage on Kapistran Square in the Buda castle. Bilal Cakici, the deputy secretary general of TURKSOY also visited the event and greeted the public.
The guests arriving from the member states of the Turkic Council, who participated in the event as the guests of honor of the grandest folklore festival in Hungary, the Festival of Crafts were received by sultry heat and a good house. Carpet weavers from Azerbaijan, the makers of traditional attires and felt from Kazakhstan, artists of batik from Uzbekistan, as well as craftsmen from Turkey and Kyrgyzstan put their wares on display on the stalls not far from Matthias Church. The interest was so enormous that because of the high number of customers it was difficult to get access to the stalls already in the morning hours. An outstanding piece of the three-day Festival was the folklore performance held on the 21st of August, commemorating the Central Asian states and Azerbaijan that gained their independence thirty years ago.
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan became independent in the fall of 1991. As Ambassador János Hóvári, the Head of the Representation Office of the Turkic Council in Budapest pointed out in his remarks, these countries were able to start full-fledged lives for the first time in their history. Self-determination and independence unshackled the suppressed cultural lives of these peoples with an elementary force. Besides their economies growing, the cultural lives of these countries also started to develop at an incredible pace. At the same time, globalization, the immense dynamics of economic life present dangers too, since the same tendencies that were observed here in Central–Eastern Europe decades ago are manifested in these countries. János Hóvári emphasized that TURKSOY is offering enormous support in preserving the culture of the Turkic peoples and presenting it to the world. The Head of the Representation Office expressed his special thanks to Bilal Cakici for the activities of the organization over the past three decades.
In his remarks, the Deputy Secretary General of TURKSOY, who also spoke about the significance of Hungary’s role, pointed out the magnitude in world history of the above event thirty years ago. He considered that the fact that Hungary joined the Turkic Council as an observer was very important for the Turkic world. And the Representation Office in Budapest has already done a great deal in the field of presenting the diverse cultural life of the community of the Turkic peoples. Bilal Cakici thanked the organizers for their work. He also wished the Hungarians a lot of success and happiness on the occasion of the holiday of Saint Stephen, the founder of the Hungarian state.
The representatives of the Embassies of the Turkic countries also took part in the event, some of them expressing their good wishes in Hungarian. During the concert famous folklore musicians from the Turkic world, among them Nogai artist of the dombra, Arslanbek Sultanbekov performed pieces of music together with their Hungarian hosts, the Fonó orchestra. As the conclusion of the event, the audience was able to admire the attire inspired by the folklore handicrafts of the Turkic world. In such a way, the rich program was completed by a colorful fashion show.
The House of Heritage, together with the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY) in Istanbul, the Representation Office of the Turkic Council in Budapest, as well as the Association of Folk Artists organized a two-day workshop on the folklore roots of Hungary and the Turkic world.
The event held in the House of Heritage in Budapest on August 18-19, 2021 under the title “Hungarian–Turkic Folklore Traditions in the 21st century” provided the participants with an opportunity to share their views on the results of the latest research into folk music, ethnography and folklore. In the field of cultivating folklore traditions, the House of Heritage is a unique institute in the world. The model of the renowned Hungarian institute may serve as an example in the Turkic states, but in other places in the world too. Urbanization on a gigantic scale has been going on in the Turkic world lying from the Carpathians to the Altai Mountains, a process that causes the system of folk traditions to disintegrate. This was the case in Hungary too for a long time. It is an important mission of the House of Heritage to acquaint the world with the Hungarian model. In this work the House has forged close cooperation with the Representation Office of the Turkic Council in Budapest.
