The opening ceremony of the festival, which brought together many poets, writers and literary figures from Türkiye and abroad, was held at the Rami Library within the scope of the Istanbul leg of the Türkiye Culture Road Festival organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Speaking at the opening, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Coşkun Yılmaz stated that too many words cannot be said in the presence of poets and said, "Too many words in the presence of poets increases shame. As the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, supporting this and similar works is our basic duty, duty and service. We will continue to support these and similar works with all our strength as the Ministry. May God make the words, pen, voice and melodies of our poets strong and effective." he said.
Festival President, poet, writer, editor, journalist and translator Adnan Özer stated that there are 20 years of work behind this event and said, "I can say that hundreds of poets and writers have come to Türkiye within the scope of this festival since 2008. We have covered themes in dozens of festivals. This year, our international theme is 'sustainable life and the transformative power of poetry'." he said.
Özer stated that he was a weak student of Beşir Ayvazoğlu, who was deemed worthy of the honorary award at the festival this year, and said, "It is a great honor for us to have him as our guest of honor. His services to Turkish literature and Istanbul, I am not exaggerating at all, would be a great epic." he said.
"I found it more useful to read good poems than to write bad poems."
Receiving the honorary award from Yılmaz, Ayvazoğlu said, "Actually, I am a retired poet. I started literature with poetry, like every Turkish young man. I wrote poetry for a long time. I also have a few poetry books, but later I realized that it is not possible to compete with great poets. I found it more useful to read good poems than to write bad poems, but I did not give up poetry." he said.
Ayvazoğlu explained that he wrote comprehensive biographies of great poets such as Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, Asaf Halet Çelebi and Ahmet Haşim, who are important names of Turkish literature, and said:
"Therefore, I believe that I have done much more for our literature as a biographer than I would have done as a poet. By reading the great poets of both Türkiye and the world, I always satisfy my taste for poetry at the highest level and continue to write about poets. Being a guest of honor at such a festival where distinguished poets come together is a great pride for me. I would like to thank those who deemed me worthy of this award and pay my respects."
The festival will end on September 29
On the first day of the festival, a poetry meeting titled "Istanbul Reads Poetry" was held at Rami Library.
In the program, poets from abroad Guy Helminger, Özlem Özgül Dündar and Nenad Saponja, as well as many names who participated in the poetry workshops, sang the poems they wrote.
After the opening, many poets read poems at the "International Poetry Evening".
Tomorrow at the festival, a panel titled "City and Poetry: Barcelona, Thessaloniki, Baku" will be held at the Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM) Library. Eduard Sanahuja from Spain-Catalonia, Dimitris Leontzakos from Greece and Akşin Yenisey from Azerbaijan will speak at the panel.
The conference titled "The Transformative Power of Poetry for a Sustainable Life" will be held at 17.30 on the same day. In addition to Adnan Özer, Julia Fiedorczuk from Poland and Matteo Lefevre from Italy will attend the conference.
On the third day of the festival, Monday, September 28, the program will continue with the "Historical City Poetry Stops Tour" to be held on the Sirkeci-Beyazıt line. Beşir Ayvazoğlu Panel will be held at 16.00. In addition to Ayvazoğlu, Alim Kahraman, Taner Ay and Ömer Erdem will attend the panel.
An international poetry reading will be held at 18.00, hosted by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar Library. In the program, Niels Hav from Denmark, Julia Fiedorczuk from Poland, Matteo Lefevre, Alper Çeker, Hüseyin Akın and Dimitris Leontzakos from Italy will read their poems.
The festival will end on September 29.
