President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan departed for the Kazakh capital, Astana, for the 10th summit of heads of state of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS). Kazakhstan will take over the rotating chairmanship of the bloc from Uzbekistan at the end of the summit.
The summit’s motto, “Turk Time” (or "Turkic Age"), reflects the growing clout of Turkic states stretching from Kazakhstan to Türkiye in an era of new alliances amid countries with shared heritage.
The summit, hosted by Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, will be attended by the presidents of Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Erdoğan, accompanied by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Director Ibrahim Kalın, Directorate of Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, former Prime Minister and current head of the OTS Council of Elders of OTS Binali Yıldırım and Sinan Oğan, a politician with close ties with Turkic states, will hold bilateral talks with leaders of participating countries.
Officials from observer countries such as Turkmenistan, Hungary and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) will also attend. The Astana Act and Astana Declaration are expected to be signed at the summit, where a series of important decisions are also expected in the economy, trade, transportation, customs, finance, education, tourism, culture and many other fields.
Ömer Kocaman, the group’s deputy secretary-general, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday that they will take significant steps toward greater integration of the Turkic world.
Cooperation between the member states will be strengthened in areas such as domestic affairs, security and defense, he said, adding that severe political crises and conflicts are occurring both in and around the region.
“We feel the need to deepen our cooperation, especially in the field of security and to develop our defense industry cooperation,” he added.
On economic ties, he said the trade volume within the group has topped some $40 billion. “Boosting trade is now one of the critical issues for us. The activity of the Turkish Investment Fund is very important to improve cooperation in this field,” he added.
On recent developments in the besieged Gaza Strip, he said that in the Astana Declaration, they would strongly condemn the Israeli attacks.
Emphasizing that they have now completed the group’s establishment and institutionalization period, he said they expect Turkmenistan to join the group. “The participation of Hungary and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as observers has also strengthened our organization,” he added.
The Organization of Turkic States, formerly called the Turkic Council, was established in 2009 as an intergovernmental organization made up of prominent independent Turkic countries that work together to elevate relations and union among themselves.
Its members are Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, while Hungary, Turkmenistan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have observer status.
