Manama: Turkey is to be the guest of honour at the Doha International Book Fair.
The 10-day event is being launched on Wednesday, but will be open to the public on Thursday.
"This is the biggest ever book fair. Many new countries are participating for the first time,” Mubarak Bin Nasser Al Khalifa, the secretary general at the Ministry of Culture, Art and Heritage, said.
Exhibitors from 26 countries will be present, along with 348 publishers and 84 agents, with a total of 28,755 titles in Arabic and 7,279 in other languages on display, Qatari daily The Peninsula reported on Wednesday.
Turkey was selected as the guest of honour because of its rich culture, Mubarak explained. "Turkey is playing an important role in the Arab world and the Turkish culture is very important and rich,” he said.
Hayati Bayrak, the president of the Association of Press and Publishing in Turkey and Kenan Kocatuark, a member of the executive board of the association, both pointed out that there seven publishers, three agencies and three authors, all from Turkey, will be attending and meetings will be held with Qatari publishers.
A panel discussion on poetry, stories and novels in Turkish literature will also be held on Thursday and the Turkish state folk dance ensemble will perform at the Qatar National Theatre.
Doha has this year been nominated the Culture Capital of the Arab world.
