The Uzbek city of Samarkand is hosting the ninth summit of the heads of state of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) today.
According to OTS’s official website, the summit is attended by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, the President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Former President of Turkmenistan, the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán and the OTS Secretary-General Baghdad Amreyev.
Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Samarkand yesterday while Chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow arrived in Samarkand today.
The OTS’s official website says that devoted to the theme of “New Era for the Turkic Civilization: Towards Common Development and Prosperity”, the summit is expected to generate a high level platform for the discussion of the intensive agenda of the Organization, where the Leaders will take decisions on a number of important issues as well as finalize various agreements and official documents of the OTS projects in the fields of economy, trade, transport and customs.
Furthermore, at the Summit, which will constitute another major milestone for the Organization, the Leaders will elaborate key issues of multilateral cooperation among the Member and Observer States in various spheres and exchange views several political and economic developments in the region and beyond.
Azerbaijan State News Agency reported today that opening the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev greeted the guests and made a speech.
Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev then made speeches.
At the end of Summit program, the Chairmanship-in-Office of the Organization will pass from Turkiye to Uzbekistan and the heads of state will ink the Samarkand Declaration together with a series of resolutions including the managerial appointments at the OTS Secretariat.
Prior to the Summit, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OTS met in Samarkand yesterday in order to carry out the final work on the agenda items and the documents to be signed by the Heads of State.
The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), formerly called the Turkic Council or the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, is an international organization comprising prominent independent Turkic countries: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. It is an intergovernmental organization whose overarching aim is promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic-speaking states. First proposed by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2006, it was founded on October 3, 2009, in Nakhchivan. The General Secretariat is in Istanbul.
Hungary and Turkmenistan are the observer states. Hungary received the observer status in 2018, while Turkmenistan received the observer status in 2021.
During the 8th summit, which was held in November 12, 2021, the council reformed into an organization, with the name Turkic Council being changed to Organization of Turkic States.
