The National Movie Archives of Kyrgyzstan Are Being Digitalized with the Support of TİKA and TRT

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) and the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) provided training to the National Film Studio of Kyrgyzstan to digitalize its National Movie archives.

The delegation consisting of Technician Barış Çakmak and Broadcasting Specialist Hamdi Ekin from the Directorate of Media Management and Archives of TRT shared their experience with their Kyrgyz colleagues during a 10-day training program in Bishkek in order to ensure the efficient use of the equipment provided as part of the “Project for the Digitalization of Important Documents and Works of T. Okeev Kyrgyzfilm National Film Studio,” implemented by TİKA.

Visiting the studio during the training program, Osman Usta, TİKA’s Coordinator in Bishkek, and Akjol Bekbolotov, Director of the Kyrgyzfilm National Film Studio, received a briefing about the training and digitalization process and described the content of the project.

In his statements, Osman Usta, TİKA’s Coordinator in Bishkek, noted that archives are the memory of a nation and that the digitalization of the archives of Kyrgyzfilm contributed to the preservation of this memory for future generations. Usta stated that they considered the history of Kyrgyzstan as the history of the whole Turkic World and believed that they implemented a meaningful project in this context. He thanked TRT for its contribution to the project.

In his statement, Akjol Bekbolotov, Director of the Kyrgyzfilm National Film Studio, noted that their archives contained thousands of works including documentaries, official ceremonies, and various events filmed from 1941 to 1998. He said, “This is the wealth of our people. We could not digitalize our archives due to budget constraints. Thanks to TİKA, we will make these archives available to the public.” Bekbolotov added that they were grateful to TRT’s staff for their devoted work while sharing their experience with Kyrgyzfilm’s staff for 10 days.

Technician Barış Çakmak, who has been working for the Directorate of Media Management and Archives of TRT for 25 years, stated that they were extremely happy to share their experience with their Kyrgyz colleagues and to contribute to the digitalization and broadcasting of many recordings both from the late Ottoman era and from the early Republican era. He thanked TİKA for providing them with this opportunity.