Source: Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hung. Tomus XXXI (1), p. 139 (1977)
The 19th Meeting of the P.I.A.C.
The 19th meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference was held in Helsinki from June 8 to 12, 1976, under the auspices of the Finnish Ministry of Culture and the Centralinstitut for Nordisk Asienforskning. 59 participants gathered from all over the world to discuss problems of the Ural-Altaic affinity and cultural and linguistic contacts in the Ural-Altaic world. It was a special honour to greet some of the great old men of Altaic studies [like] Nicholas Poppe, Karl H. Menges and B. Collinder who could speak of their own views on special questions of the Altaic and Ural-Altaic affinity both in public and in challenging private talks. The massive participation of Soviet scholars was a welcome phenomenon and it was especially favourable that many Turkic nationalities of the Soviet Union were represented by them in person. Besides Professor N. A. Baskakov, the leader of the Soviet delegation B. Čaryjarov, Z. B. Muchamedova (Turkmens), N. Z. Gadžieva (Azerbaidjani), Š. Kamalov (Karakalpak), K. Musaev (Kazak), B. O. Oruzbaeva (Kirgiz), Š. F. Muchamed’jarov (Kazan Tatar) and A. I. Charisov (Bashkir) took part in the Soviet delegation.
The so-called «confessions» were, as always, extremely useful, everybody could learn what other colleagues do, and further information could be obtained about scholarly projects and plans. Lectures touched upon many problems, even besides the central topic, the Ural-Altaic affinity. Less then a year after the conference the material of the lectures has just appeared as a nice 158th volume of the MSFOu: Altaica. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference Held in Helsinki 7–11 June 1976, Helsinki 1977, 259 p.
The conference was housed in the Hanasaari Culture Centre near Helsinki on a picturesque small isthmus. The organization was excellent and Professor Aulis J. Joki’s generous hospitality made everybody feel at home. He was aided in his work by excellent collaborators, Mr. Harry Halén and Mr. Okan Daher. Finally, this short report cannot be concluded without mentioning Mr. Ymer Daher’s reception where all participants of the conference could enjoy the real «Altaistic» athmosphere created by the small, but warm-hearted and enthusiastic community of Finnish Tatars. In brief, the conference was successful, it promoted both scholarly research and scholarly contacts.