KAEU hosted the 11th International Ashiq Pasha Poetry Festival. The event was organized by Kırşehir Ahi Evran University, Kırşehir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, and Kırşehir City Council and was held at the Congress and Culture Center of KAEU was attended by poets, bards and citizens. Many people took the stage at the poetry festival. The delegation, which attended the poetry festival before the program, visited Vice-Rector Prof. Dr. Musa Özata and held consultations.
The opening speeches of the program, which started with a moment of silence and the recitation of the National Anthem, were made by Poet Zübeyde Akbulut and Rector of KAEU Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahocagil. In his speech, Karahocagil said that Âşık Pasha, a lover of God, was one of the important values of our city and that he pioneered the Turkish language in Kırşehir, the land of the Ahi-Order followers, the place where civilizations intersect. Stating that his late father, Seyfettin Karahocagil, was also a poet and that he grew up in that climate, Rector Karahocagil read a poem from his father's divan. Finally, Prof. Karahocagil stated that this evening they would commemorate Âşık Pasha, one of the founders of the Ahi-order, who wrote all of his works in Turkish, and he thanked everyone who contributed to the preparation of the poetry night.
Later in the program, academician and writer Kazım Ceylan, in his speech, explained that Aşıkpaşa, the author of Garipname, one of the first works written in Turkish, was from Kırşehir and his contributions to our language and the Ahi-order.
In the poem recitation, different people took the stage; Vedat Fidanboy from Ankara, Nermin Akkan from Tokat, Ruhsati Eroğlu from Sivas, Figen Gülle from Bursa, Leyla Yıldırım from Çorum, Zafer Yıldırım from Kahramanmaraş, Şeyhmuz Çiçek from Diyarbakır, Süleyman Güler from Sivas, Filiz Bedük from Ankara, Elzot Abdulkadirov from Uzbekistan, and Shugyle Agybay from Kazakhstan. Other pepole who took the stage were Nihat Soykan, Ayşe Tekin, Veli Ertaş, İdris Altuner, Zübeyde Gökbulut, Canan Köksal, and İbrahim Yıldız.
The festival program, in which poets read poems and sang folk songs, ended with Deputy Governor İsmail Çetinkaya, Rector Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kasım Karahocagil, Vice-Rectors Prof. Dr. Musa Özata and Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Şimşek, director of Kırşehir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism Halil Çalışır, and Director of Kırşehir City Council Tahsin Üçgül giving certificates of appreciation and plaques to the participants, and then taking a souvenir photo.
