The Organization of Turkic States (OTS) has hailed the first trilateral summit that took place between Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan as “a momentous occasion to advance cooperation across the Turkic world."
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkmen leader Serdar Berdimuhamedov came together in the western Turkmen city of Avaza on Wednesday to address steps aimed at further deepening cooperation between the three countries in various areas, particularly in trade, energy and transportation.
“Three fraternal nations come together to strengthen their ties and work toward a brighter future of the Turkic world,” OTS Secretary-General Kubanychbek Omuraliev said in a statement following the summit.
Omuraliev welcomed the declaration made by the three leaders, as well as the signing of various documents in areas of trade, culture, energy and transport. He asserted the deals would “undoubtedly contribute to further strengthening of our comprehensive cooperation and enhanced interaction within the OTS.”
He noted that the expansion of ties between the three countries "is a major step forward in unifying and strengthening the entire Turkic world."
"It will serve to reinforce the already robust collaboration between our truly fraternal nations," he said.
Addressing a tripartite foreign ministers meeting held before the Avaza summit, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also highlighted the growing cooperation across the Turkic world, noting the states have “strengthened inter-relations through the Organization of Turkic States and bilateral, triple and quadruple mechanisms."
The leaders’ meeting in Avaza came a month after the OTS summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan held under the slogan of “A new era of Turkic civilization: On the way to common development and prosperity."
The presidents of Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Türkiye, Hungary's prime minister, and the head of the upper house of the Parliament of Turkmenistan participated in the event and discussed economic cooperation, regional and international developments.
Türkiye also passed the chairpersonship to Uzbekistan and the Samarkand Declaration was adopted during the summit.
The OTS is an interstate bloc established to expand cooperation between Turkish-speaking countries in the fields of politics, economics, science, education, transport and tourism.
The organization's members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan. Hungary, Turkmenistan, along with the newly joining Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), have observer status in the organization.
The group could expand further if Turkmenistan becomes a full member – an expansion announced by Türkiye's Foreign Ministry but not confirmed by Ashgabat. If Turkmenistan joins, the union set up in 2009 will incorporate all the Central Asian countries that speak languages in the Turkic language family.
