Alma-Ata is hosting a meeting of Kazakh, Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz and Turkish leaders at the 1st summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic States (CCTS). Turkish Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan was forced to cancel his visit to Kazakhstan, Turkey was represented by Vice-Premier Bekir Bozdag.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev expressed condolences for the terrorist acts in Ankara. He noted interest of attendants of the meeting in making the council a full-fledged international organization with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as its members. This requires signing of documents.
Nazarbayev underlined the importance of institutional basis for the council. Kazakhstan’s “Turkic Academy” plays a special role. It promotes development of cultural-humanitarian cooperation of Turkic states.
The Turkic world has over 40 people in the post-soviet space. Nazarbayev proposed a festival of Turkic peoples in 2012 with youth, sports and art contests.
The Kazakh president underlined the role of TURKSOY in promoting culture and traditions lf Turkic peoples. He supports Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in forming the Culture Fund of Turkic States in Baku. It will boost cooperation. But development of cooperation needs will and determination.
Nursultan Nazarbayev stressed on Turkic states coping with the global recession. The president believes that the CCTS will boost trade-economic development of ties. There is great potential to increase trade turnover using geostrategic positions and activation of transport projects of the Turkic world.
Yulia Yakusheva, Alma-Ata. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
