GROWING POWER

An extraordinary summit of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) was held in Ankara in solidarity with Türkiye, following the severe earthquakes in the south-east of the country. The event was initiated by the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as further evidence of the unwavering Azerbaijani-Turkish brotherhood.

Together against disasters

The summit was attended by presidents Ilham Aliyev, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Sadyr Zhaparov, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Türkiye. In addition, the leaders of Turkmenistan and Hungary - the national leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Khalk Maslakhaty Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as well as the President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Ersin Tatar and Secretary General of the Organisation of Turkic States Kubanychbek Omuraliev - participated in the forum.

The theme of the summit was Disaster - Emergency Management and Humanitarian Assistance, focused on assisting Türkiye in dealing with the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people. Turkic countries were among the first to assist Türkiye in such a difficult moment, sending search and rescue teams whose efforts saved many lives. In particular, Azerbaijan sent 940 rescuers, medical workers and volunteers to the earthquake zone. The team saved 53 people out of the rubble and provided healthcare services to more than 3,000 people. In addition, Azerbaijan delivered 5,300 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Türkiye.

The main outcome of the Ankara meeting of Turkic leaders was an agreement to establish a common civil protection and emergency response mechanism by the 10th OTS summit slated for October 2023. The goal is to "address disaster response needs in an effective, coordinated and timely manner" in any of the OTS countries.

The Ankara Declaration endorsed a United Nations Flash Appeal for assistance to the earthquake victims in Türkiye and to hold an International Donors' Conference. Azerbaijan, which initiated the extraordinary OTS Summit, pledged $100 million in aid at the conference organised by the European Commission together with the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council to mobilise global support for Türkiye and Syria.

Overall, the Ankara summit further demonstrated the solidarity of Turkic states, institutionalised by the Nakhchivan agreement of October 3, 2009. The Turkic unity factor has a decisive influence on the OTS position in the international arena, cementing the organisation as one of the ambitious "structural" players in Eurasian politics and economics. Implementing the strategic priorities outlined in the Turkic Vision 2040 adopted at the 2021 Istanbul Summit, the OTS covers quite a wide geographical space and has every chance of implementing its huge potential in order to secure the interests of its member states. Among other measures, these will also include specific decisions negotiated at the recent extraordinary summit held in Ankara.

Concrete solutions

While the focus of member states at the initial stage of cooperation between the Turkic states was the development of cultural and humanitarian ties, today the economic cooperation is the driving force of Turkic integration, including the development of trade and investment relations, as well as the implementation of transport, communications, infrastructure and energy projects.

The Ankara summit reiterated the importance of the energy factor in enhancing Turkic integration. Turkish President Erdogan expressed his confidence that the OTS countries would play a strategic role not only in the expansion of transport routes and supply chains, but also in energy security. This is confirmed by the successful implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Southern Gas Corridor, with the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) being a backbone strategic project. Cooperation between the Turkic states in the transport and logistics sectors will also contribute to the development of the Middle Corridor project.

Other important trade and economic decisions announced at the Ankara summit include the signing of an agreement on the establishment of the Turkic Investment Fund to be headquartered in Istanbul. The fund will be based on the principles of equal investment and equal voting rights for each of the OTS members. The purpose is to mobilise the economic potential of the OTS member states in order to strengthen trade and economic cooperation between them. In addition, given the integration agenda of the organisation, the Ankara Declaration provides for promoting the values and interests of the Turkic world.

Ilham Aliyev's messages

The Ankara Declaration strongly condemned the recent hate crimes against the Holy Qur'an. This fact demonstrates the political position of the OTS member states. This once again confirms the commitment of Turkic states with predominant Muslim population to traditional moral values and condemns any manifestation of racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia, which are becoming increasingly common in Western states.

Participants of the Ankara summit particularly condemned the armed attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran. The leaders of Turkic countries called for a speedy and comprehensive investigation into the incident to bring all the perpetrators to justice.

Participants of the extraordinary summit also thanked President Ilham Aliyev for the initiative to hold the event. He made some important political messages. First and foremost, they confirm the solidarity of Azerbaijan and Türkiye both in joy and in sorrow. For example, President Aliyev recalled the political and moral support Türkiye and personally President Erdogan extended to Azerbaijan during the 44-day war in 2020 that ended the 30-year Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories. President Aliyev once again drew the attention of his Turkic colleagues and the entire international community to the consequences of this occupation: the deliberate destruction of Azerbaijani towns and villages, destruction of historical and religious monuments, the plundering of Azerbaijan's natural resources and the serious environmental damage in the occupied territories. The summit participants sharply condemned Armenia's criminal actions, including the evasion to provide information about the fate of almost 4,000 missing Azerbaijanis, which gives grounds to consider them dead (following the discovery of mass graves in the liberated territories), and the mining of Azerbaijani territories during the occupation, which killed or seriously injured some 300 Azerbaijanis after the war.

According to President Ilham Aliyev, Armenia recognises the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan following the outcome of talks held last year in Prague and Sochi, but still refuses to fully withdraw its troops from the Azerbaijani territory. Moreover, illegal Armenian military groups and criminals continue to operate in the mountainous areas of Garabagh. Armenia also evades its obligation to open the Zangezur corridor. "Thus, Armenia blatantly violates the terms of the November 10, 2020 Trilateral Statement, and should be held accountable for this," President Aliyev stated.

The Azerbaijani leader expressed gratitude to Türkiye for its active participation in the process of reconstruction of Garabagh and Eastern Zangezur, in the revival of life in the vast territories completely destroyed by Armenia. "Turkish companies are actively involved in the reconstruction process as contractors in many infrastructure projects. The value of contracts signed to date with Turkish companies exceeds $3 billion. My dear brother Recep Tayyip Erdogan has visited the liberated lands three times; he has so far visited Shusha, Fuzuli, Zangilan and Jabrayil," underlined the President of Azerbaijan.

He also expressed gratitude to Shavkat Mirziyoyev for a school being constructed by Uzbekistan in the Fuzuli district liberated from occupation, and to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for the art centre being built in the same district. In addition, Ilham Aliyev praised the creation of the Azerbaijani-Uzbek Investment Fund and the Azerbaijani-Kyrgyz Development Fund.

Ilham Aliyev highlighted the need for the return of Azerbaijanis to West Zangezur, the historical Azerbaijani territory which was separated from Azerbaijan and given to Armenia by a decision of the Soviet government in November 1920, causing the geographical division of the Turkic world. "Before 1991 all Azerbaijanis were forcibly expelled from what is now Armenia. As in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur, Armenia destroyed our cultural heritage, mosques, historical monuments also in the territory of present-day Armenia, that is, Western Azerbaijan," the President said. And now "our compatriots, subjected to ethnic cleansing in Western Azerbaijan, have united in the Community of Western Azerbaijan. They have set a goal of peacefully returning to their historical lands. According to the Return Concept developed by the Community of Western Azerbaijan, a legally binding international agreement with an appropriate verification and guarantee mechanism must be reached for the return of Azerbaijanis forcibly deported from the territory of present-day Armenia to their native lands. Thus, "just as we, the Azerbaijani state, will ensure the individual rights and security of Armenians living in Garabagh, Armenia should ensure the rights and security of western Azerbaijanis on the reciprocal basis."

Ilham Aliyev again used the OTS platform to call for the protection of the rights of representatives of Turkic peoples living outside their national states. "Dear colleagues, the Turkic world is not limited to the borders of Turkic states. The Turkic world covers a much larger geography. There are more than 50 million Azerbaijanis living in the world. Only 10 million of them live in the independent Republic of Azerbaijan," he said.

Thus, Azerbaijan is adding a new task to the OTS agenda, which is supposed to increase the interest of Turkic states in the activation of this integration structure. There is no doubt that the OTS is becoming an increasingly attractive organisation. It is not by chance that Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov announced Turkmenistan's accession to the OTS as a full-fledged member at the organisation's next summit to be held in the Kazakh city of Turkestan in October 2023. This is another landmark in the ever-growing picture of strengthening the OTS and expanding integration processes in the Turkic world.