Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city Osh has been named as 2019 Culture and Arts Capital of the Turkic World.
The city of Osh was selected in a meeting of the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY) in Turkey’s northern Black Sea province of Kastamonu.
Kastamonu was selected last December for the honor by TURKSOY.
“Next meeting will be held in Osh. I hope we will all meet there, I invite all of you there,” Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said at the closing ceremony of the 36th Term Meeting of TURKSOY.
“2019 will be the year of Asik Veysel, one of Turkey’s most prominent folk singers in early 20th century, and Imadud-Din Nasimi, 14th-century Azerbaijani poet,” Dusen Kaseinov, the TURKSOY head said.
TURKSOY, which calls itself the UNESCO of the Turkic world, was founded in 1993 by the culture ministers of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkey.
The international body has been carrying out activities to strengthen ties of brotherhood and solidarity among Turkic peoples, pass down the common Turkic culture to future generations, and introduce it to the world.
