İpek Yunus Emre Institute (YEI), International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY), Writers Union of Turkey (TYB) and Ankara Social Sciences University (ASBU) organized the panel titled "From Bukhara to Kosovo Mehmet Akif Ersoy" on the occasion of Mehmet Akif Ersoy's birth anniversary.

The ambassador of the Republic of Türkiye in Pristina Sabri Tunç Angılı, Kosovo Regional Development Minister and Kosovo Democratic Turkish Party (KDTP) Chairman Fikrim Damka, TURKSOY Deputy Secretary General Sayit Yusuf, Kosovo Yunus Emre Institute Coordinator Ramazan Yılmaz, representatives of Turkish institutions and in Kosovo the relatives of Mehmet Akif Ersoy in Kosova attended to the panel held in a hotel in the town of Istog in the northwest of Kosovo,

Academicians from Türkiye and Kosovo presented papers on Ersoy's life and works in the session was chaired by ASBU Rector and TYB Chairmanin Professor Musa Kazım Arıcan in the panel.

Within the scope of the commemoration events, the Holy Quran was read at the Mehmet Akif Ersoy Mosque in Suşitsa (Susica) village of İstog, Ersoy's father's house.

On the other hand, cinema, TV series and theater actor Ahmet Yenilmez staged his one-man play "Korkma", which tells about sections from Ersoy's life and the Çanakkale Epic, in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.

Mehmet Akif Ersoy, the author of the National Anthem, the symbol of the Turkish nation's struggle for independence, member of parliament, poet and thinker, was born in Fatih on December 20th, 1873, as the son of a family that migrated to Istanbul from Sushitsa, village of Kosovo.

TURKSOY, upon the proposal of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, declared 2023 as the "Year of Commemoration of Mehmet Akif Ersoy" throughout the Turkic World, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Ersoy's birth.