International Organization Profile

Member States: Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Hungary (Observer)


THE COOPERATION COUNCIL OF TURKIC SPEAKING STATES

The process of Summits of Turkic Speaking States was founded as a forum after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, with the participation of countries having linguistic association with Türkiye, namely Azerbaijan in the Southern Caucasus and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan in the Central Asia. Within the context of the process started with Türkiye’s initiatives in 1992, ten "Heads of State Summit of Turkic Speaking Countries" were held.

During the 9^th Summit held in Nakhichevan; Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan signed Nakhchivan Agreement on the Establishment of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States with a view to institutionalizing the current process. The structure of Council called as “TheCooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States” or “Turkic Council” in short, consists of the Council of Heads of States, the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Senior Officials Committee, the Council of Elders and the Secretariat with headquarters in Istanbul.

The primary goal of the Turkic Council is to strengthen the mutual trust and political solidarity in Turkic world and to accelerate economic and technical cooperation opportunities, providing human relations with sound structures and recording historical and cultural accumulations of the Turkic world to the extent possible.

In the 10^th Summit of Turkic Speaking States in Istanbul convened on 15-16 September 2010, the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States was established. In Istanbul Summit, Ambassador Halil Akıncı was assigned as the Secretary General of the Council, which has been functional since 1 November 2010, for three years.

Ambassador (R) Halil Akıncı served as the first Secretary General till 2014. Ramil Hasan was appointed as the Secretary General for the them between 2014-2018 and then handed over the office to Ambassador Baghdad Amreyev.

After the founding meeting in İstanbul, the first Summit Meeting of the Turkic Council was held in Almaty on 20-21 October 2011 with the theme “Economic and Commercial Cooperation”.

The 2^nd Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States was held on August 22-23, 2012 in Bishkek with the theme of “Educational, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation”.

The 3^rd Summit of the Council was held 15-16 August 2013 in Qabala District of Azerbaijan with the theme “Transportation”.

The 4^th Summit meeting was held in Türkiye on 4-5 June 2014 in Bodrum with the theme of “Tourism”.

The 5^th Summit meeting was held in 11 September 2015 with the contact of Media and Information Technologies in Astana.

6^th Summit of the Council is envisaged to be held in Kyrgyzstan under the theme of “Youth and Sport”. Hungary joined the Turkic Council as an observer during the Summit.

The inauguration ceremony of the European Representation Office of the Turkic Council was held on 19 September 2019 in Budapest, with the participation of Minister Çavuşoğlu.

Uzbekistan joined the Turkic Council as a full member during the 7 ^th Summit which was held under the theme of “Supporting the SMEs” on 15 October 2019 in Baku.

The Extraordinary Video Conference Summit of the Turkic Council was held on 10 April 2020 to strengthen the solidarity in fight against COVID-19 and increase the coordination, with the participation of the heads of states/governments of the Turkic Council observer/member states and Turkmenistan.

8^th Summit of the Turkic Council is planned to be held in Türkiye. The chairmanship will be taken over by Türkiye.

AFFILIATED / RELATED INSTITUTIONS OF THE COOPERATION COUNCIL OF TURKIC SPEAKING STATES

The Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking Countries is the umbrella organization for several cooperation mechanisms among Turkic Speaking Countries. They are as follows:

• TÜRKSOY (International Organization of Turkic Culture): It was established in 1993. Its center is located in Ankara. TURKSOY develops cooperation between members in the fields of science, education, culture and art, spreads common values of the Turkic world to masses by promoting them at international level and deepens cultural ties among the Turkish Speaking States.
• TURKPA (the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic Speaking Countries): TURKPA was established by the Istanbul Agreement signed in 2008. Its center is in Baku. TURKPA has the aim of deepening cooperation among the Parliaments of Turkic Speaking Countries.
• Turkish Business Council: Its founding document was signed in 2011. World Turkic Business Council plays an important role in efforts of the Turkic Council to enhance economic cooperation by bringing together private sector institutions of four countries. Presidents of the Chambers of Commerce convene once a year in the framework of Turkish Business Council. 5^th meeting of the Turkish Business Council was held in Astana on 3 April 2017 and a decision was taken regarding the establishment of the Secretariat of the Turkish Business Council in Istanbul.
• International Turkic Academy: It functioned as a national institution of the Republic of Kazakhstan from its establishment in 2010 until 2012. Its founding agreement was drafted with a view to giving the Turkic Academy an international structure to operate within the scope of the Turkic Council and it was signed in 2012 Bishkek Summit. Located in Astana, the International Turkic Academy aims to coordinate and support scientific researches carried out in the field of Turkish language, literature, culture, history and ethnography. It also aims to make visible the contributions of Turks to world civilizations by conducting research on cultural and spiritual inheritance of Turkic nations.
• The Turkic Cultural Heritage Fund: Its founding document was signed in 2012 Bishkek Summit. The aim of the fund is to protect Turkic Cultural Heritage by supporting and financing its activities, projects and programmes and to carry out the necessary works. The Turkic Cultural Heritage Fund will carry out its works in cooperation with TÜRKSOY and International Turkic Academy.
• Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCI): The founding document of the TCCI was signed on 17 May 2019, on the margins of Astana Economic Forum, with the participation of the member institutions of the Turkish Business Council. The services of the secretariat of the TCCI are now carried out by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB). In accordance with the Turkish legislation, the works for obtaining the status of a legal entity and an international status are on the agenda of the TCCI. The Business Forums held on 5 October 2019 in Tashkent and on 14 October 2019 in Baku were the examples of the actions for increasing the commercial interactions in the Turkic World. Hungary and Uzbekistan became the member of TCCI during the Business Forum in Baku.