10ᵗʰ Istanbul Publishing Fellowship

As last year, the 10th Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program, which took place in the historical and cultural atmosphere of Rami Library, took place on 25-26-27 February 2025 with an intense participation. The program was organized by the TBYM with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and was supported by the Press and Publication Association of Turkey, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, Turkish Airlines, Anadolu Agency, TUGEV, DEKMEB and Introtema Copyright and Translation Agency. 355 foreign and 125 domestic publishers from 75 countries participated in the program and held 7300 bilateral meetings. As a result of these meetings, more than 4500 preliminary copyright contracts were signed.

The 10th Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program, of which Anadolu Agency was the Global Communications Partner, took place in the cultural and historical atmosphere of Rami Library. Organized in cooperation with the Press and Publication Association and the Turkish Press and Publishers Copyright and License Society (TBYM), the program brought together hundreds of local and foreign publishing houses with the contributions of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The opening ceremony of the program, where the focus country was the People's Republic of China, was attended by Gökhan Yazgı, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey. Ministry of Culture and Tourism Director General of Libraries and Publications Taner Beyoğlu, ITO Chairman Şekib Avdagiç, ITO Vice President Mehmet Develioğlu, ITO Board Member and YAYFED President Münir Üstün, Head of Libraries and Publications Department Nizar Kara, TEDA Branch Manager Hakan Koray Özlük, Press and Publication Association President Mustafa Karagüllüoğlu and IBBY China Former President Minzhou Zhang attended the opening ceremony.

At the opening ceremony of the 10th Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program, the first speech was made by Mr. Mehmet Burhan Genç, President of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Press and Publishers Copyright and License Society. Mr. Genç emphasized the happiness of having reached the 10th year of the program with great success and stated that the 10th Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program plays an important role in introducing the Turkish publishing industry to the world. Genç also underlined that both the number of participants and the awareness of the program abroad have increased every year and concluded his speech by thanking all the supporting institutions, especially the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Immediately after his speeches, the 10th Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program promotional film was presented to the appreciation of the ceremony participants. The short movie, which describes the growing participant family, the increase in the number of contracts signed and the progress made in the sector, received great applause.

Taner Beyoğlu, Director General of Libraries and Publications at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, delivered his speech at the opening ceremony. Mr. Beyoğlu underlined that Turkey's participation rates in foreign fairs have increased significantly and that local publishers are closely following international standards and trends. Beyoğlu also pointed out that the Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program has provided a great service for the publishing industry since its inception.

In its 10th year, Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program underwent a change in its corporate identity and a short film introducing the new corporate identity was presented to the participants. The logo, which was prepared with the aim of achieving a more modern and dynamic appearance, was also appreciated by the participants.

Following this short film, Mr. Şekib Avdagiç, President of the Board of Directors of Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, delivered his speech. Mr. Avdagiç stated that they are very happy to support this and similar events in order to make our country a more conscious, educated and well-read country. Avdagiç wished that this event, which has made a great contribution to the cultural community since the day it started, will be instrumental for good.

10th Istanbul Publishing Fellowship Focus Country Delegation President and IBBY China Former President Minzhou Zhang was another name who attended the ceremony. Zhang was invited to the stage to make his speeches and expressed his pleasure to take part in the program as a Focus Country. He thanked those who contributed to the program, which will reinforce these ties and will be instrumental in many new commercial relations, as they have strong ties with Turkey. He said that such events play a great role for the publishing sectors of different countries to get to know each other much more closely and expressed his satisfaction on behalf of Chinese publishers. After his speech, Mustafa Karagüllüoğlu, President of the Board of Directors of the Press and Publication Association, and Münir Üstün, President of YAYFED, presented the Focus Country Plaque to Zhang. Finally, Gökhan Yazgı, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, delivered his speech. Yazgı stated that the developments in the publishing sector owed a lot to this and similar programs.

After all protocol guests took the stage, the ribbon was cut and the 10th Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program started. In order to symbolize the thousands of preliminary royalty agreements to be signed this year, the first signatures were signed on the stage by Palestinian Author Publisher Activist Nahed Al-Shawwa, Founder of Noon Publishing and Yusuf Ünal, Founder of Multibem Publishing. Before the signing, Nahed Al-Shawwa said that the book is a great opportunity to shout out the story of the Palestinian people's courage and wisdom to the four corners of the world. The statements of “the stories of every individual whose rights are defeated all over the world are valuable to us, the story of Palestine whispers thousands of things to the modern man, and it is our duty to enlarge this whisper with books” received great applause from the participants. During the bilateral meetings that started immediately after the opening ceremony, an intense and enthusiastic meeting traffic did not go unnoticed.

Again this year, the Rami Library Trip was organized especially for the first year participants. The publishers who wanted to participate in the trip came together in front of the Focus Country hall and first of all, their mouths were sweetened with Chinese tea and cookies served in this area. The history of the Rami Library, restoration processes, manuscripts and various exhibitions were presented to the participants.

After the completion of the first day's meetings, a short trip was planned to introduce the participants to a historical and cultural value of Istanbul. The Kariye Mosque, which is one of the richest and most surviving examples of Eastern Roman art in the whole world with its architecture, mosaics and frescoes, and which constitutes an important place among the art world, was visited. After the visit, which was greatly appreciated by everyone, especially the foreign participants, we moved to the area where the Gala Dinner and Istanbul Copyright Awards would take place. The Istanbul Copyright Awards were held at the Gala Dinner in the Sultan Cistern, one of the largest indoor cisterns in Istanbul, with a history of 16 centuries, which was specially selected for the participants to experience a more sophisticated atmosphere.

The Istanbul Copyright Awards, which took place during the Gala Dinner, were also presented with great curiosity. The award ceremony, organized to support the works written by Turkish authors to meet readers from different countries, was also followed with great interest. This year's first prize was awarded to Moon Publications from Egypt, second prize to Nasim Kutub Publishing House from Uzbekistan and third prize to Napkut Publishing House from Hungary. The awards were presented to the publishing houses by Mustafa Karagüllüoğlu, President of the Press and Publishers Association, Münir Üstün, President of the Board of Directors of YAYFED and Erhan Erken, President of the Assembly of Istanbul Chamber of Commerce.

Following the award ceremony, plaques of appreciation were presented to the institutions that supported the 10th Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program. In this regard, plaques of appreciation were presented to the Press and Publishers Association, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, Turkish Airlines, Introtema Copyright and Translation Agency, TUGEV, DEKMEB, Anadolu Agency, Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Culture, General Director of Rami Library and General Director of Istanbul Foundations. In addition, the organizing team who contributed to the organization of the program was invited to the stage and greeted the participants.

Seminars organized as part of the Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program were also held this year. This year's seminars, in which the issues closely followed by the international publishing industry, new trends, basic and common problems encountered in the field of publishing and alternative solutions to these problems were discussed, were titled Focus Country Special Session: Publishing and China and Publishing and Artificial Intelligence.

The first session, “Focus Country Special Session: Publishing and China”, which was the first session. In this session, where publishing activities in China, the volume of the market, reader behavior and the progress in the ongoing cooperation between Turkish and Chinese publishers were discussed, Mustafa Karslı, President of the Board of Directors of the Turkish-Chinese Cultural Association, moderated by Mingzhou Zhang, Former President of the Board of Directors of IBBY China, and Prof. Dr. Giray Fidan, Head of the Department of Oriental Languages and Literatures at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University.

In the second session of the seminars, the theme of artificial intelligence, which is closely followed by the global publishing industry, was discussed. In this session titled “The Publishing Sector and Artificial Intelligence”, Mehmet Burhan Genç, President of the Board of Directors of the TBYM, moderated the session. Dr. Mustafa Taha Koçyiğit, Head of the Artificial Intelligence Institute Department, and Dr. Fatih Kaleci, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Coordinator at Necmettin Erbakan University, shared their experiences in this field. In which areas and to what extent publishing houses utilize artificial intelligence, the advantages and disadvantages brought by this technological development were examined in the light of the evaluations of experts in their fields.

Immediately after the seminars, the second day's bilateral meetings started with great speed. A lively atmosphere prevailed in the program area thanks to the bilateral meetings actively conducted by both online and in-person participants.

Immediately after the second day's meetings were concluded, the participants were invited to the Bosphorus Tour and the accompanying dinner and were directed to the shuttle buses. The dinner, which was eaten during the boat tour with the unique view of the Bosphorus, was also highly appreciated by the participants.

Launched in the 10th year of the Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program, Media Match is an innovative platform that brings together all stakeholders of the publishing ecosystem. This special area brings together publishers, producers, animation studios, e-book and audiobook platforms and content producers, enabling strong collaborations between different sectors.

This year was a first for the Media Match Section:

A new event was launched this year within the Istanbul Fellowship program. With this event called Media Match, publishers and digital platforms came together and enabled the book to be visible in different media. With this event, publishers, producers, animation studios, e-book and audiobook platforms and content producers came together and had the opportunity to establish strong collaborations between different sectors.

With Media Match, publishers were able to communicate directly with digital platforms for the conversion of their books into audiobooks, e-books or animated formats, to reach a wider audience, to develop digital distribution channels, and to create various evaluation meetings to consult whether these works are suitable for scripting. A bridge was built between the publishing industry and digital platforms through this space, where they were able to negotiate with media and production companies to adapt their books into videos, podcasts or interactive applications. This section, which was organized for the first time in the 10th year of the program, is planned to continue in the coming years.

The 10th Istanbul Publishing Fellowship, which took place in the historical and cultural atmosphere of Rami Library, hosted over 400 participants from 75 different countries for 3 days. More than 7300 bilateral meetings were held between the participants and more than 4500 pre-copyright agreements were signed. The Istanbul Publishing Fellowship program, which grows every year, will take place next year on February 10-11-12, 2026.