On 27–28 February 2026, Baku hosts a commemorative symposium celebrating the 100th anniversary of the First Baku Turkology Congress. The event is organized by the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, with the support of the Yunus Emre Institute, the Turkish Linguistic Society, the Institute of Turkological Studies at Marmara University, and Khazar University.
The symposium marks a century since the 1926 Congress, which laid the foundation for collaborative scholarly research on the languages, history, and culture of Turkic peoples. The sessions are held in the historic hall of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, the very venue where the first Congress convened a hundred years ago.
Ministers, representatives of international organizations, heads of academic institutions, university rectors, and over 60 scholars from Turkic states, as well as from Moldova and Albania, are participating in the symposium.
During the conference, President of the Turkic Academy, Prof. Dr. Shahin Mustafayev highlighted that the ideas formulated at the Baku Congress were not lost but have been carried forward through contemporary integration initiatives among Turkic states.
He also emphasized that the Turkic Academy regards the study and institutionalization of the Congress’s legacy as a central priority. “In 2024, the Common Turkic Alphabet was adopted. Work continues on unifying terminology, while joint projects in language, history, archaeology, sociology, and economics aim to strengthen scholarly collaboration,” said Mustafayev.
The program, organized in an interdisciplinary format, features nine panel sessions covering Turkic languages, literature, history, culture, and folklore, where scholars discuss the most relevant directions in contemporary Turkology research.