The historical and political conditions created rivalry between the Greeks and the Turks, especially after the middle of the 19th century, despite the fact that both peoples have some cultural ties and experiences.
The folk/popular cultures have portrayed this relationship, whereas they were often used for the documentation of the arguments of each nation state. So this conflict did not leave room for focusing on what unite Greek and Turks.
This blog comes out as a result of the conversation that Greek and Turkish folklorists had during the first conference(Folklore Studies in Greece and Turkey Thessaly and held in Volos/Greece in June 2010(4-6). All things happened during that conference reinforced our decision to establish a common ground of communication and of further understanding each other. We are aware of the prejudice dominated over our scholarly field in the past. So we expect that our forum will contribute folklorists from our countries to come closer. The goal of this blog is, on the one hand, to form conditions of approach and cooperation among the scholars who focus on aspects of folk/popular culture and, on the other hand, to understand the differences and underline the cultural similarities .
Blog will give information about the undergraduate and postgraduate Folklore Studies in Greece and Turkey
In that sense , everybody dealing with Folklore Studies in both countries has the right to use the blog. Colleagues can mail their news, photos, information to Evangelos Avdikos(university of Thessaly
