The 13th Summit of the Council of Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) began in Ankara. Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally welcomed the guests at the Millet Exhibition Hall in the Beştepe presidential complex.
Held under the motto “The Turkic Century: Unity in Language, Thought and Deed,” the summit was attended by Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov, as well as delegations from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The leaders posed for a group photograph before the opening.
Trans-Caspian Corridor and joint satellite
Speaking at the summit, Erdoğan described the Trans-Caspian International East-West Transport Route, known as the Middle Corridor, as “a strategic line that will shape the trade of the future.” He said cybersecurity was as important as security on land, in the air and at sea, and that Ankara expected the memorandum on cybersecurity and cyber cooperation to be signed as soon as possible.
Erdoğan also said accelerating the joint satellite project remained a priority, proposed bringing the OTS countries’ markets together on a common digital trading platform and called on all member states to participate in creating a Great Turkic Language Model covering the Oghuz, Kipchak and Karluk language groups.
“We want to see Turkmenistan as a full member”
“There is no place for division and discord in the family photograph of the Turkic world. We are all united, we are together and, God willing, brothers forever,” Erdoğan said. He expressed hope that the organization would expand its contacts with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Türkiye’s president separately thanked Turkmenistan, which has observer status in the OTS, for its contribution to the organization’s work. “We hope to see Turkmenistan, under the dynamic leadership of my brother Serdar Berdimuhamedov, become a full member of our family council as soon as possible,” he said.
Iran and Palestine
Erdoğan said conflicts in the region benefited neither side and had a severe impact on the global economy, trade and energy markets. “We hope that the tensions around Iran, which have risen again recently, will be resolved through diplomacy rather than weapons,” he said.
Türkiye’s president called on Turkic states to make greater efforts toward a just resolution of the Palestinian issue, help deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and launch its reconstruction as soon as possible, and support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Türkiye assumes the chairmanship
At the summit, Türkiye is assuming the OTS chairmanship from Azerbaijan. On the opening day of the summit, Erdoğan’s article “The Century of the Turkic World: From Solidarity to Integration,” in which he expressed confidence that the 21st century would become “the century of the Turkic world,” was published simultaneously in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Northern Cyprus and Hungary.
