The program “Periodicals in the Balkans: The Adventure of Islamic Thought, 1918-2018” was held in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the support of the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB).
YTB President Abdullah Eren said in the program at the Gazi Husrev Bey Library that the Islamic world began to disintegrate in the 19th century.
Eren stated that the Islamic world struggled with colonialism and oppression in different geographies in the early 20th century, and said, “There was a very serious intellectual movement in the Islamic geography in the 20th century. This project covers the years 1918-2018. It covers a difficult period especially for the Balkans. Maybe we went back in terms of Muslims governing themselves in terms of the state, but it was a period when intellectual and intellectual movement was intense. With this work we are doing, God willing, we want to shed light on the future. Because Muslims have similar problems no matter where they are in the world. We do not have an approach that can solve these problems in terms of thought.”
Eren stated that although the project seems to be about the past, it is a project about the future, and that they learned what Muslims in the Balkan countries talk about among themselves through the study.
The coordinator of the project, Dr. Ahmet Köroğlu from Istanbul University, said that they researched what Muslims thought and discussed in the Islamic world in the 20th century.
Köroğlu stated that they examined the intellectual studies in the Balkans through periodicals.
Dr. Sevba Abdula, President of the Balkan Studies Foundation, also stated that there is a strong communication on the Istanbul-Skopje-Sarajevo line and that they attach importance to this.
Abdula said that many researchers took part in the creation of periodical publications in the Balkans, and that they not only uncovered the past but also conducted work for the future.
Yunus Emre Institute Sarajevo Director Mehmet Akif Yaman and Gazi Husrev Bey Library Director Dzenan Hadzic also gave speeches at the program.
Following the speeches, panels were organized within the scope of the program.
Project
The project titled “Periodicals in the Balkans: The Adventure of Islamic Thought 1918-2018”, carried out by the Balkan Studies Foundation and supported by YTB, aims to address the thought that emerged in the contemporary period in the Balkans through periodicals.
The project, planned to be carried out between 2023-2025, covers 3 periods: 1918-1945, 1945-1990 and 1991-2018 and is supported by oral history studies.
The project covers periodicals originating in North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Romania, Greece, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia.
Researchers working on contemporary and Islamic thought in the Balkans constitute the general target audience of this project.
This project is expected to play an important role in creating an important archive of publications covering this period in the Balkans and recording cultural values through oral history studies to be conducted within this scope.
