Secretary General of Turkic Council Baghdad Amreyev met with nearly 30 representatives of Turkey's national media in Istanbul.
Speaking at the meeting attended by high-level representatives from television, print and digital media, Secretary General Amreyev informed the journalists about structure, activities and objectives of Turkic Council.
“As a person who has devoted his heart to the Turkic world, becoming Secretary General of Turkic Council means a lot to me.” the Secretary General Amreyev told journalists. He added that “Turkic Council was founded by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey in 2009 as an intergovernmental organization. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are participating in the summits and events of Turkic Council and Hungary became an observer member at the last Summit and is now actively taking part in our events.”
Secretary General Amreyev stressed that as the Secretary General of the organization, his mission was to raise the cooperation among Turkic Speaking Countries to the highest possible level and to make the Turkic Council a visible and respected organization in international arena. He said that Turkic Council was intensifying efforts towards these goals.
Secretary General Amreyev told members of media that the overarching goal of Turkic Council is to promote comprehensive cooperation among the Member States and advanced collaboration within the organizational framework in various areas ranging from foreign policy, economy, transport and customs, tourism to education, media, youth and sports.
Reminding journalists about the presence of other integration bodies in Turkic world, such as TURKSOY, Turk PA, Turkic Academy, Turkic Heritage and Culture Foundation, Secretary General Amreyev pointed out that, Turkic Council was designed to act as an umbrella organization with a view to harmonizing the efforts in different fields. Recently, Turkic Council has started to take active and leading roles in some areas, especially in the fields of economy and commerce.
“In the field of international politics Turkic Council has dedicated itself to strengthening peace and stability, promoting wide-ranging cooperation and revealing the potential for joint development in the region. Although it brings together a particular group of countries, the organization does not take an exclusive approach or a specific political agenda. On the contrary, by promoting deeper relations and solidarity among Turkic countries, it aims to serve as a new regional instrument for advancing international cooperation in Eurasian continent and in the Islamic world, particularly in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Turkic Council highly values cooperation with other international organizations and deepens its relations with the UN and its Specialized Agencies such as UN Development Program (UNDP), UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), UNWTO and UNESCO. Turkic Council also established official relations with the OSCE, BSEC, ECO, WCO.
Turkic Council is an observer international organization in ECO since 2012 and the ECO is also planning to apply for observer status at the Turkic Council.
He added that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation decided to finalize Turkic Council's application for observer status at the Summit held in Makka on 31 of May of this year.
Main Achievements
Secretary General Amreyev stated, that as a young international organization, Turkic Council achieved a great deal and accomplishments in the ten years since its foundation. “The member states of Turkic Council became accustomed to focusing on the same goal and working towards common objectives in international arena. Therefore, Turkic Council has given a very important institutional identity to the cooperation among Turkic States.” he added.
Drawing attention of journalists to the fields of cooperation among Turkic Speaking States, Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev pointed out that Turkic Council has carried out cooperation in 20 different fields. “So far, we have held 6 Summits, 13 Foreign Ministerial meetings and 50 Ministerial meetings in our fields of activity. We have organized over 130 working groups and experts' meetings in various fields, 25 conferences, forums, vocational training programs, youth camps and festivals, many of them at international level. Cooperation among the Ministries and relevant institutions of our Member States is improving. Thanks to the efforts under the umbrella of the Turkic Council, 25 agreements and memorandums of understanding have been signed among our ministries and institutions.” Secretary General Amreyev said.
“On September 3, 2018, 6th summit of Turkic Council took place in Cholpon Ata that was attended by President of Kyrgyzstan Mr. Sooronbay Ceenbekov, President of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of Kazakhstan Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev and President of Turkey Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan. For the first time in history President of Uzbekistan Mr. Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also participated in the summit” Secretary General Amreyev added.
He pointed out that 10 meetings on the ministerial level in different spheres were held since the last summit in Kyrgyzstan underlining that one-fifth of all Turkic Council meetings at the level of Ministers have been held in the past ten months and 3 more ministerial meetings are going to be held within the next 3 months.
Secretary General Baghdad Amreyev stated “I am in constant contact with the Heads of State and Foreign Ministers of our member states. We often meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. Mr. Çavuşoğlu paid a special visit to the Secretariat last month. I met with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on April 16th and with Kyrgyz President Sooronbay Jeenbekov on February 9th and May 31st. Also my permanent, a monthly meetings with Foreign ministers of Turkic Council certainly deepen the cooperation in the Turkic World
Secretary General Amreyev emphasized that the Council has achieved a lot in its efforts to institutionalize the economic cooperation. He said: “Last month, for the first time since the foundation of Turkic Council , we established the ‘Joint Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry. With the participation of TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and Presidents of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of member countries. We signed the founding agreement of TCCI on 17 May 2019 in Nur-Sultan. We would like to include Uzbek, Turkmen and Hungarian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in this process.”
General Secretary Amreyev stated that Turkic Council had carried out the necessary work to establish the Turkic Investment Fund within the scope of its intensive activity program. He said that the Fund could be operational with initial capital of 500-600 million USD at the first stage. He said he hoped that during the upcoming meeting of ministers of Economy of Turkic Council the most founding documents will be approved.
Secretary General Amreyev said that, again for the first time in history, a Turkic Council Secretary General paid official visits to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in June and both visits were extremely important with considerably positive outcome. “I had a comprehensive and fruitful meeting with Turkmenistan Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov in Ashgabat. In Tashkent, I met with the Minister of Economy and Industry, the Minister of Capital and Trade and the President of the Chamber of Commerce. We decided to further our relations with both countries in the form of concrete projects.” Secretary General Amreyev said.
Secretary General Amreyev told journalists that Turkic Council wishes to see Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as full members of Turkic Council.
A Priority For Turkic Council: Economic Cooperation
Secretary-General Amreyev stressed that one of the main objectives of Turkic Council was to strengthen economic co-operation among Member States, and pointed out that economic cooperation among member states was progressing in a positive way despite regional and global negativity.
“Since the Astana Summit we held in 2015, trade among Turkic Council Member States has increased by 22% to approximately $ 10 billion. When we include Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the total trade figure reaches out to 17 billion dollars.
Of course there is still much work to be done. We can't count this enough. We continue our work with this willpower.” Secretary General Amreyev conveyed to journalists. “First of all, we are increasing institutional cooperation among our ministries in fields such as economy, transportation, customs, tourism and communication technologies. We are also working to create concrete areas of cooperation among our ministries through joint projects. Amreyev stated. “The theme of the 7th Summit will be Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of our Countries.” he said.
We organize ‘Joint Business Forums' that bring together the representatives of the private sector of our countries.” Secretary General Amreyev added.
Secretary-General Amreyev expresses his confidence that the establishment of the Joint Turkic Chambers of Commerce and industry and efforts undertaken for establishing the Joint Investment Fund would certainly become significant instruments for enhancing the economic cooperation member states.
Secretary General Amreyev, answering questions from journalists, briefed them on ongoing efforts for preparation of Common History and Geography Book of Turkic nations by the Turkic Academy and Ministries of National Education, as well as establishment of a joint television channel by the Ministries Responsible for Media.
Future Targets
"We decided to hold the 7th Turkic Council Summit on 15 October 2019 in Baku. As you know, October is the month of signing the Nakhchivan Agreement, the founding agreement of Turkic Council. So, we will celebrate during the summit the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Turkic Council.” Secretary General Amreyev said.
Secretary General Amreyev announced that the Ministers of Economy of Turkic Council would meet in Nur-Sultan on July 2nd -3rd and that the founding documents of Turkic Joint Investment Fund would be discussed at the meeting.
Stating that Turkic Council would hold the first General Assembly meeting of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkic World in Istanbul on July 31st, Secretary General Amreyev added that the Presidents of the Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Hungary are also invited to the meeting.
Baghdad Amreyev informed journalists that Turkic Council would hold “Tashkent Turkic Investment Forum” in Uzbekistan on September 12-14, together with the Ministry of Investment of Uzbekistan.
Secretary General Amreyev also announced that Turkic Council would actively participate in the 1st Caspian Economic Forum to be held under the auspices of the President of Turkmenistan on August 12th.
Secretary General Amreyev said Turkic Council would organize its annual Turkic Business Forum in Baku in mid-October.
Secretary General Amreyev informed that Turkic Council would hold a Turkic World Diaspora meeting in New York in August as part of its intensive activities directed towards Turkic World.
Pointing out Organization's important goals for the future, Secretary General Amreyev emphasized that increasing the visibility of the Council in the international arena was also among the top priorities.
Secretary General Amreyev said that within this framework, Turkic Council would open its European office in Turkic Council observer state Hungary before the planning 7th Summit of the Council in Baku.
At the end of the meeting with members of the press, Secretary General Amreyev thanked journalists for their great attention to Turkic Council's activities and expressed his hope for constructive and fruitful cooperation.
