The 39th Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference was held in Szeged, Hungary, between June 16–21, 1996, under the presidency of Árpád Berta. The list of participants can be found here, the programme is available here.
(Source: p. IX, Historical and Linguistic Interaction between Inner-Asia and Europe. Proceedings of the 39th Permanent International Conference (PIAC). Edited by Árpád Berta. Studiauralo-altaica 39 (Szeged, 1997). 471 pp. ISBN 9630481-881-1.)
The 39th Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference was held in Szeged, Hungary, between June 16–21, 1996.
The organizers were especially pleased Szeged could host the conference in 1996 as it marked the 1100 anniversary of the Hungarian landtaking of the Carpathian Basin. The conference, focusing on the theme of “Historical and Linguistic Interaction between Inner-Asia and Europe”, hosted over one hundred colleagues from twenty three different countries.
The participants were greeted with a letter in the Opening Session of the Meeting by Árpád Göncz, President of the Republic of Hungary, Chairman for Hungary’s Millecentennarium Anniversary Commemorative Commission, and Domokos Kosáry, former President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Istvan Szalay, Mayor of Szeged, and Péter Deme, Director of the Office for Hungary’s Millecentennarium Anniversary Commemorative Commission, spoke at the Opening Session.
On June 16 István Lehmann, President of the General Assembly of Csongrád County, held a reception welcoming the participants. On June 20 a one-day excursion was organized for the guests started with a reception given by Zoltán Tóth, Mayor of Kiskunhalas.
Over eighty presentations were delivered at the conference. This volume contains all the submissions of the authors by December 31, 1996, the extended deadline for the papers.
Upon the publication of this collection, I would like to extend my heartful gratitude to all who assisted in the organization of the conference. Our special thanks to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Hungary’s Millecentennarium Anniversary Commemorative Commission for financial support as well as Attila József University for overall assistance in conference preparations. Finally, I must thank my immediate colleagues; without their devoted efforts the conference could not have been realized, nor this volume published.
June 1997
Two participants of the meeting, Hans Nugteren and Marti Roos, published a short report on this meeting which was published in the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) Newsletter, No. 10, Autumn 1996, p. 8.