The 4th Summit of the Turkic Council

The 4th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States was held in the county of Bodrum. Attending the summit were President Abdullah Gül; President İlham Aliyev of Azerbaijan; President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan; President Gurbangulu Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan and President Almazbek Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan.

Prior to the 4th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council), President Abdullah Gül met with Turkmen President Gurbangulu Berdimuhamedov; Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev in the county of Bodrum. The leaders during their talk agreed to take tangible steps to consolidate their cooperation in the areas of energy, transportation and culture.

PRESIDENT GÜL HOSTS DINNER IN HONOR OF LEADERS

After the bilateral talks, President Gül hosted dinner in honor of his guests at the hotel where the talks were carried out. Attending the dinner were the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.

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President Abdullah Gül welcomed President İlham Aliyev of Azerbaijan; President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan; President Gurbangulu Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan and President Almazbek Atambayev of Kyrgyzstan upon their arrival at the Bodrum Türkbükü Hotel, where the summit was held. Afterwards, the leaders had a family photo taken. President Gül later delivered the keynote speech.

SIGNIFICANCE OF BONDS BETWEEN TURKIC STATES

At the very beginning of his speech, President Gül noted that despite not being a member of the Turkic Council, President Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan is attending the summit as a guest.

The President continued as follows: “Our meeting with our brothers are always of great significance to us. I attach great importance to strengthening our bonds with the Turkic states, our sister countries, with whom we share common language, belief, history and other values. In this vein, I have welcomed each and every one of you to Turkey during your official visits and I have enjoyed my visits to your countries as your guest. Our ties and fraternity are deep-rooted and unshakable and our relations are very strong, therefore we thought we should not keep these relations simply on the bilateral level. Thus, we decided to establish the Turkic Council during the Nachchevan Summit held in 2009 in order to fortify the economic interdependency and social interaction between the Turkic states.”

CONSOLIDATING REGIONAL SPIRIT

Reiterating that they have established the Turkich Council to provide the multilateral cooperation which they enjoy with an institutional framework by acting as per the principle, ‘United we stand divided we fall’”, President Gül said that “we have drawn inspiration from the Turkic knot we use in carpet weaving, a n important handicraft in Turkic culture. As you know, knots added to each other end up a much more durable and valuable work by taking strength from one another. This is also a symbol of the union and solidarity among the Turkic tribes. Likewise, we aim to fortify our cooperation by taking strength from each other thanks to the Turkic Council. We alos aim at creating new synergy by consolidating the regional spirit in a way that will endorse other regional cooperation mechanisms. We believe that we can make greater contributions to the prosperity of our peoples and to the stability of our region, strengthening the solidarity and partnership we enjoy.”

CLOSING SESSION

President Gül delivered a speech at the closing session of the 4th Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council) held in the county of Bodrum. The President underscored that their efforts would make the Council a center of attraction that produces results-oriented tangible projects which can contribute to the stability and prsoperity of the peoples. The President, offering his thanks to Kazakhstan, which is to host the next summit of the Turkic Council, said through such meetings, they have reaffirmed their will to strengthen the Council.

IMPORTANCE OF PROJECTS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

The President continued his speech with the following words: “Our efforts would make the Council a center of attraction that produces result-oriented tangible projects which can contribute to the stability and prosperity of the peoples. We have thus far taken significant steps. It is of great importance to apply the decisions made at the end of the summit and to implement the tangible projects as part of this. We as Presidents of the member countries will closely follow these projects.”

President Gül further pointed out that they will need the original ideas and visionary approaches of the Secretary General of the Turkic Council, saying: “We expect our Secretary General to bring a dynamism to the council. Turkey, as the new term president of the Turkich Council will always stand by him in this regard.” President Gül then extended his thanks to those who attended the summit and asked them to convey the love and greeting of the Turkish nation to their peoples.

After the President’s speech, the joint declaration of the summit and the decision regarding the appointment of the Secretary General and his deputies were opened to signature. President Gül, afterwards, met with Kazakh President Nazarbayev at the hotel where the summit was held.