Yunus Emre Institute has undertaken several events in Bucharest between February 17 and 22 in cooperation with the Hungarian Cultural Center, the  Turkey-European Foundation, and Kalem Literary Agency as part of the EU-Turkey Intercultural Dialogue Programme (ICD).

"Danube in Time" photography exhibition

The events held as part of the "Intercultural Dialogue Through the Waves of Danube" project commenced with the "Danube in Time" photography exhibition at the Hungarian Cultural Center on Monday, February 18. Curated by Virágvölgyi István, the exhibition consisted of the photographs of the Danube taken before 1990, taken from the archives of Fortepan.

Director of Bucharest Hungarian Cultural Center Kósa András László, Director of Istanbul Hungarian Cultural Center Gabor Fodor and Bucharest Yunus Emre Institute's Director Melda Mantı delivered keynote speeches. Their speeches stressed how the Danube united 10 countries through which it flowed. Following the opening of the exhibition with huge participation, the Hungarian music ensemble "Babra" gave a concert.

Debut of the "Stories on the Danube" book

The ten stories winning the story competition held as part of the project were published in a book entitled "Stories on the Danube." Published in Turkish, Hungarian and English, the book was promoted by Mehmet Demirtaş and Ece Erdoğuş from Kalem Literary Agency with three interviews on Wednesday, February 19. These interviews were held with academics and students at the Turkish Studies Center of the Faculty of History, students at Maarif College, and literature fans at Yunus Emre Institute's Bucharest branch. The participants were gifted with the book.

Demirtaş stressed that the book was just out of print and it was debuted in Romania. Erdoğuş indicated that unlike the images of happy life mushrooming in social media, literature describes life with full reality and is a crucial tool for bringing cultures closer. At the end of the event, the writer's books were given away to the participants and she signed her books.

"Culture Operators Capacity Development" training

As another component of the project, the "Culture Operators Capacity Development" training, held previously in Budapest, was conducted in Bucharest between February 21 and 22. During the training, slated to be held in Turkey as well, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gökçe Dervişoğlu Okandan talked about how to develop individual and institutional capacities and look for and find new opportunities to finance the projects.

The two-day training, held at Bucharest Yunus Emre Institute, was attended by cultural operators, artists, scientists and operators.

Theoretical and practical work was undertaken on cultural policies and their management, institutional values, project creation, archiving and information management.