The meeting was co-hosted by the Director of the Youth Affairs Agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan Mr. Alisher Sadullayev and the Secretary General of the Turkic Council Baghdad Amreyev.
Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Azerbaijan Farid Gayibov; Minister of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan Aida Balayeva; Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Turkey Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu; Deputy Director of the State Agency on Youth Affairs, Physical Culture and Sports under the Ministry of Culture, Information, Sports and Youth Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic Soiuzbek Nadyrbekov; and Director General for Sports Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary István Iglói-Nagy attended the meeting, which was moderated by the Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev.
Informing the Ministers about the latest developments and activities carried out in the sphere of Youth and Sports within the framework Turkic Council, Secretary General Amreyev reiterated the attention paid by the Heads of States of the Turkic Council to youth and sports portfolio with clear references to the remarks that they delivered at the 7th Summit in Baku and the Informal Turkistan Summit that were held in October 2019 and March 2021 respectively. Secretary General also shared with the participants the activities realized by the Turkic Council in both fields during the pandemic period.
Ministers highlighted the importance of policies developed for youth empowerment and sports considering the educational, cultural and economic values that youth carries. They emphasized that the ongoing projects and activities for youth under the Turkic Council have proved to be valuable means to enhance ties among the Turkic speaking youth and expand their knowledge about their commonalities, and extended their full support for the deepening of the ongoing cooperation with new robust initiatives within the framework of the Council.
Underscoring the significance of the Young Entrepreneurs Forum as a valuable initiative binging together the talented and well-educated young entrepreneurs of the Member States and helping them enhance their network and discover new business opportunities, Ministers decided that the 2nd Young Entrepreneurs Forum of the Turkic Council will be organized in Turkey in 2023 in honor of the 100th anniversary of its independence with a large and meaningful participation from the Turkic Council countries. They also agreed to hold the Forum in every two years rotationally to let the Forum serve as a stable mechanism of networking and developing joint initiatives for the Turkic Speaking young entrepreneurs.
Underlining their continuing support to the ongoing youth and sports agenda of the Turkic Council, Ministers also agreed that 2nd General Assembly of the Youth Platform and 4th International Youth Festival will be held simultaneously in Kazakhstan, the 5th International Youth Camp in Azerbaijan, 4th Young Leaders Forum in Uzbekistan, Youth Voluntarism Training Program in Turkey, Summit of Sport Volunteers of the Turkic Speaking States in Azerbaijan, 4th World Nomad Games in Turkey, 2nd Turkic Universiade in Kazakhstan in 2022.
Moreover, Ministers and the Secretary General signed the “Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation under the Turkic Council on Multilateral and Bilateral Youth and Youth Workers Exchange Programs”, which will lay the legal and institutional basis for the youth NGOs and officers from the Ministries of Youth and Sports to make exchanges. Parties expressed that the MoU will open a new page in the youth cooperation among our Member and Observer countries and boost multilateral interaction of the Turkic Speaking Youth as well as help enhance institutional harmonization among our relevant institutions.
In accordance with the signed MoU, Ministers further decided to organize the 1st Multilateral Youth Exchange Program in April 2022 in three different cities in Turkey (Istanbul, Bursa, Çanakkale).
Secretary General Amreyev informed the Ministerial panel about the newly started cooperation process among the Football Federations/Associations of the Turkic Speaking States including Turkmenistan and Observer State Hungary. Mentioning the MoU signed among the Federations, Secretary General emphasized that the Federations will cooperate on coaching education, organizing training camps, organizing friendly matches including Turkic Council Cups, referee exchange program and referee education, exchange of experience in good governance, event management and football administration, just to name but a few.
On the margins of the Ministerial meeting, International Teqball Federation made a vivid presentation of the new sport discipline, Teqball, initiated by Hungary in the presence of the Ministers, Secretary General and the official delegations. Parties agreed to initiate the 1st Turkic Council Teqball Tournament in Hungary in 2022.
Ministers adopted the Regulation of Turkic World Youth Capital Initiative based on the relevant decision of the Heads of States of the Turkic Council in Informal Turkistan Summit in March 2021. They noted their firm confidence that the initiative will help level up the emphasis placed on the concept of youth in our countries and will also enable us to organize much more youth projects and activities in our countries. Based on adopted Regulation, Parties agreed that Uzbekistan will be the first host of the Youth Capital of the Turkic World, which will be followed by Turkey in 2023.
Ministers agreed that the 6th meeting of the Ministers in charge of Youth and Sports of the Turkic Council will be convened in Turkey in 2022 on the occasion of the 4th WNG to be staged in Turkey.
