NO ONE ELSE WILL SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS FOR US

   “I am grateful to our fathers and grandfathers who, a hundred years ago, risked their lives and gathered in Baku to think about the future of the Turkic peoples. As a representative of the powerful art of cinematography, which unites all forms of art and is capable of addressing extremely important issues, I ask myself a question: are we able to continue the work of our ancestors in a manner worthy of them? In my opinion, no.”

These remarks were made by the People’s Artist of Turkmenistan and film director Hocaquli Narlyev in the latest episode of a project dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the First Turkological Congress, jointly produced by the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation and Baku TV. He emphasized that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and after gaining all the necessary opportunities for unification, it would have been possible to establish a common film industry. He noted that a new system could have been formed for secondary and higher education of young people:

   “In all our educational institutions, we could have established film libraries featuring domestically produced films that tell the stories of our people’s history filled with heroism, valor, and suffering, as well as of our great personalities and heroes who have made significant contributions to world culture and civilization. I consider this extremely important, because our youth do not know the ancient and modern history of our people well enough.”

The film director added that a centralized, unified, joint film production system could have been established, which would have been beneficial for everyone both creatively and financially:

   “We have not resolved this issue, nor many others, to this day. Of course, today we are producing joint films and new films. However, unfortunately, these films can only be shown in the producing country. Regrettably, a unified distribution system that would ensure broad circulation of these films has not been created. We must establish a common, shared, large-scale distribution system encompassing the entire Turkic world, with a population of approximately 250 million people.”