The Uzbek city of Samarkand hosted the ninth summit of the heads of state of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) on November 11.    

According to OTS’s official website, the summit was attended by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov, the President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Former President of Turkmenistan, the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán and the OTS Secretary-General Baghdad Amreyev.

The OTS’s official website says that devoted to the theme of “New Era for the Turkic Civilization: Towards Common Development and Prosperity”, the summit generated a high level platform for the discussion of the intensive agenda of the Organization.

During the summit, the leaders reportedly underlined the strong commitment of Member and Observer States to Turkic integration and the Turkic World Vision 2040.

The main agenda topics among others were the decisions and signing of the protocol on amendments to the Nakhchivan Agreement, the Organization of Turkic States Strategy for 2022-2026, the Trade Facilitation Strategy of the Organization of Turkic States, the Agreement on Establishment of Simplified Customs Corridor, the Agreement on International Combined Freight Transport, Transport Connectivity Program, the Memorandum of Understanding Between Relevant Institutions of the Member States of the Organization of Turkic States About Digital Human Resources Systems, and Trade Facilitation Strategy of the Organization of Turkic States.

In addition to the agenda items, the leaders also discussed the recent regional and international developments and, took decisions on a number of important issues concerning the future of the Organization.

During the Summit, The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has been admitted to the Organization of Turkic States as an observer member.

One of the most important decisions of the Summit was the establishment of the Turkic Investment Fund which will provide the necessary resources for OTS Member and Observer States’ economies and help to build a more robust Turkic financial integration.

The Samarkand Summit marked the end of the mandate of Baghdad Amreyev as the Secretary General of the Organization of Turkic States.  Baghdad Amreyev was appointed by a special decision of Heads of States as the President of nearly established Turkic Investment Fund.

The leaders appointed the Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to the Republic of Turkiye Kubanychbek Omuraliev as the new Secretary General for the next term.

At the Summit, the Chairmanship of the Organization was handed over from Türkiye to Uzbekistan and the Heads of State adopted the Samarkand Declaration.  The Leaders also decided to hold the next Summit in Kazakhstan in 2023.

The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), formerly called the Turkic Council or the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, is an international organization comprising prominent independent Turkic countries: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.  It is an intergovernmental organization whose overarching aim is promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic-speaking states.  First proposed by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2006, it was founded on October 3, 2009, in Nakhchivan. The General Secretariat is in Istanbul.

Hungary and Turkmenistan are the observer states. Hungary received the observer status in 2018, while Turkmenistan received the observer status in 2021.

During the 8th summit, which was held in November 12, 2021, the council reformed into an organization, with the name Turkic Council being changed to Organization of Turkic States.