The journalist and author Ayhan Demir's The Balkan Book / Names, Works and Lives work was introduced at Sarajevo Yunus Emre Institute. 

THE BOOK HIGHLIGHTS A LARGE MEMORY

In his opening speech, Sarajevo Yunus Emre Institute Director Mehmet Akif Yaman emphasized the importance of the work for Turkey and the Balkans, "The author makes connections beyond the daily politics and everchanging conjunctures of the Balkans. The Balkan Book opens the cover of a large memory chest which have remained closed for many years and through which we have only started to remember what we have lost."

Sarajevo University, Faculty of Science, Department of Communication and Journalism faculty member Prof. Fahira Feyziç Çengiç emphasized that the concept of pluralism have always existed in the Balkans but one of the best examples of living together in harmony existed in the Ottoman period with her words, referring to a verse in the Surah al-Hujurat in Quran, "The Creator have created the differences, colors and pairs for us to understand each other better."

TURKEY AND THE BALKAN COUNTRIES WILL COME CLOSER THROUGH THIS WORK

In her speech, Sarajevo University, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Turkish Language and Literature faculty member Edina Nurikiç said, "The people of culture, art and science are the ones who will enable the approach between Turkey and the Balkan countries. This work and the author will make us come closer to each other."

After the reviews of the book by the Bosnian authors and scholars, Ayhan Demir highlighted that literature and ideas were the solid ground for listening and understanding each other. Demir mentioned that the book was a stance against the ideological support of the physical distance between us and the Balkans. Ayhan stated that the place of the Balkan geography in the hearts of Turks would not change and wished that the book would refresh our memories in re-acquaintance of the Balkan literature and our common culture.

In The Balkan Book, Ayhan Demir, who is known as an author who studies the Balkans and loves the Balkans, writes about the bonds and forgotten relationships between the people who live in Turkey and the Balkans by saying, "Seeing that we are separated on paper (maps), we can unite, must unite again on paper (book)".

In the first part of his work, Demir includes detailed studies on the lives and works of Cevad Karahasan, Dritero Agoli, Ilhami Emin, Ismail Kadare, Ivo Andriç, Kim Mehmeti, Mak (Mehmedaliya) Dizdar, Meşa (Mehmed) Selimoviç, Necad İbrişimoviç and Nusret Dişo Ülkü, and the interviews with Ilhami Emin, Kim Mehmeti and Necad Ibrişimoviç are presented to the reader in the second part.

The program ended after Demir autographed his books.