Organised by Marmara University Turkic Studies Institution and Sultanbeyli Municipality, International Symposium of Turkish Prisoners of War started with Assoc. Prof. Yüksel Çelik’s opening speech on behalf of organising committee on the 14th of March in Prof. Dr. Necmettin Erbakan Culture Center.

In the symposium which lasted two days, Rector of Marmara University Prof. M. Emin Arat and Mayor of Sultanbeyli Municipality Hüseyin Keskin addressed the participants. Rector of  National Security College Prof. Erhan Afyoncu, Prof. Cemalettin Taşkıran and Assoc. Prof. Abdülhamit Avşar announced their memorandums in the opening session whose director is Manager of Turkic Studies Institution Prof. Okan Yeşilot.

On the second day of the symposium which is the first in its field and was held in two different halls  in Marmara University Göztepe Campus, stories of Turkish prisoners of war in a wide geographic area from Caucasia as far as Africa, from the Balkans as far as Venice and Spain  were discussed by many specialists from Italy, Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Turkey.

While organising committee  that indicated the memorandums which are announced in the symposium will be published for the sake of academic circles in 2017 drew attention to captivity issue that conventional historiography relatively ignores and the importance of putting forth dramatic stories of prisoners of war who have the worst effects, they stated that they hope this international symposium leads to symposiums on various fields such as literature, sociology and music, thus academic and cultural accumulation will be attained and lack of information will be eliminated gradually as missing parts are assembled.