V Eurasian Literary Festival of Festivals "LiFFt": Outcomes

The history of the V Eurasian Literary Festival of Festivals "LiFFt", supported by the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, has begun in the fall of 2019 since the moment the name of the winner of the previous (IV) festival was announced. The IV Festival took place in Baku, the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The famous Turkish poet Tugrul Tanyol was awarded the gold medal of the last festival. According to the rules of the project, next year this large-scale literary event was to take place in the country of the winner - in Turkey.

But the reality in the face of a global pandemic the organizers and the host of the festival were forced to postpone the event for a year.

Finally, in July 2021, online preparing began. It lasted until mid-October. Its results surpassed the results of 2019.  As compared with the V Festival which gathered representatives of 52 countries of the world, the VI literary forum by the time of its opening has received works by 196 participants from 69 countries.

The offline opening of the "Lifft" festival took place on November 11 in Istanbul. After the symbolic transfer of the project flag from the representative of Azerbaijan to the winner of 2019, the Turkish poet Togrul Tanyol, to the sound of the festival anthem, the Chairman of the Literary Council of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly Margarita Al announced the V Eurasian Literary Festival of festivals open.

The participants of the event were greeted by:

• First Deputy Secretary General - Head of the General Secretariat of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly Svetlana Smirnova,
• alternative Nobel Prize laureate and Head of the Medellin Poetry Festival Fernando Rendon (Colombia),
• Chairman of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan Anar Rzayev,
• Head of the Public Association of owners of scientific and literary works of Turkey (İLESAM) Mehmet Nuri Parmaksiz,
• poet Konstantin Kedrov (Russia),
• writer Olzhas Suleimenov (Kazakhstan),
• writers from many countries of the world.

This time the Gold Medal winner was an outstanding poet, writer and literary critic, founder of the Eurasian literary series "Silk Road", winner of the world award Mankhe-Ashraf Dali (Ashraf Abul-Yazid) from Egypt.

Thus, the country of the next festival was determined - Egypt.

By the decision of the jury, the works of 90 writers and poets were included in the first volume of the literary edition "Living Anthology of the World's Writers". In addition, the anthology included 10 more authors whose video works received the largest number of views on the YouTube channel of the festival. 36 participants of the festival were awarded with diplomas of spectators’ appreciation.

The works of all 196 participants will be published in a special issue of the "Lifft" magazine.

The awards ceremony, held in Istanbul on November 13, was watched by lovers of poetry and prose in 25 European countries, 21 Asian countries, 15 North, Central and South American countries, 10 African countries, New Zealand, and the Islands of Aruba, Barbados, Montserrat, Sao Tome and Principe.

Eldar Akhadov