From January 17–19, 2026, the 14th International Ohrid Vodici scientific conference and exhibition titled “Identity in the Digital Age: Memory Culture, Heritage, Tourism and Security” was held in the city of Ohrid, North Macedonia. The conference was dedicated to Turkish art historian Associate Professor Ahmet Aytac and organized jointly by the Advanced Research Center (Skopje), the Film Academy (Ohrid), Adnan Menderes University (Aydın, Türkiye), and the Azerbaijani NGO “Miras” Cultural Heritage Support Public Union.

More than 70 scholars from Azerbaijan, Türkiye, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Georgia, Morocco, Germany, and other countries delivered academic presentations.

Opening the conference, Organizing Committee Chair Professor Rubin Zemon emphasized that the digital revolution has fundamentally transformed how societies define, preserve, and share identity, cultural heritage, and collective memory. He noted that digital tools enable heritage objects and museums to reach global audiences and reshape tourism through virtual tours and online interaction, while simultaneously introducing ethical, legal, and security risks. The conference therefore aimed to examine the future of identity, heritage, memory, and tourism at the intersection of opportunity and vulnerability.

At the opening ceremony, speeches were delivered by representatives of several institutions, including Azerbaijani scholar Dr. Fariz Khalilli (AMEA Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology), Professor Ahmet Sacid Açıkgözoğlu (Rector of Mimar Sinan University), Professor Ardian Lami (Elbasan University, Albania), Professor Goran Basic (Institute of Social Sciences, Serbia), Professor Yuliya Popcheva (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Professor Zoranko Malinov (North Macedonian Folklore Institute), Deputy Mayor Ana Krstevka of Ohrid, and Goran Patchev, Director of the Ohrid Institute for Protection of Museums and Monuments.

The keynote lecture was delivered by Professor Mutluhan Taş of Gazi University, who presented on the life and scholarly legacy of Ahmet Aytac. Aytac himself later spoke on shared cultural elements between Macedonia and Türkiye. The opening section also included the inauguration of individual exhibitions titled “From Turkestan to Anatolia” (Ahmet Aytac) and “Eternity” (Özgür Çetintaş), introduced by Professor Aktan Ago of the Marko Cepenkov Folklore Institute.

During ten thematic sessions, Azerbaijani researchers presented several collaborative projects, including:

* A digital reconstruction and unified database project of 11th–14th century glazed ceramics from the Haji Badal Mosque in Basqal

* A historical, architectural, and epigraphic study of the “Old” cemetery in Amirjan, focusing on digital documentation and heritage protection

* Research on the tourism value of cultural heritage monuments in Buzovna

* A model proposal for transforming religious heritage into museum spaces in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur

At the conclusion of the conference, participants received certificates. Delegates also joined organized study visits to Ohrid city and fortress, the Robev House Museum, and the archaeological parks of Heraclea and Stobi.