Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Cooperation between Turkic speaking states has always been at a high level.
Turkic countries have traditionally been the key political and economic partners, they support each other at international level and strengthen communication.
However, it seems that soon the partnership between the Turkic speaking countries will become even more intense. The desire and interest in this is shared by all the parties. Statements made Sept.11 at the V Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (CCTS) in Astana, which was attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev, Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Ismet Yilmaz and Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan Sapardurdy Toylyev became another confirmation of these intentions.
Today, the Turkic speaking countries implement more joint initiatives and common projects. Thus, the Turkic Academy, which gained international status in 2014, successfully functions. Today, the academy coordinates and promotes research on the history of the Turkic world, studies the Turkish language and literature, culture and conducts research in common Turkic world.
Cooperation between the news agencies of Turkic speaking countries becomes closer. Last month, it was decided to create the first international Turkic news channel. Moreover, the ministries of education of the sides actively discuss the preparation of Turkic textbooks on history, geography and literature.
Another step towards the revival of common roots is the establishment of the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation, which is being created in Azerbaijan now. At the last summit, the host of the forum, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, urged to speed up the formation of a common educational space of the Turkic states and took the initiative to turn the International Kazakh-Turkish University after A.Yassavi in Turkestan into an educational institution for the entire Turkic world.
However, cooperation between the Turkic speaking countries is not limited to the spheres of culture and education only. The strategic position of the Turkic speaking countries creates all the preconditions for a revival of the Great Silk Road on their territory, which will connect China with Europe.
Steps to develop the transit potential of the Turkic speaking countries are already being taken. So, the construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and Western Europe-Western China motor highway nears its completion, a modern transport infrastructure in the Caspian Sea is being created, and the first test container train on China-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan route was launched in late July-early August, which can significantly reduce the shipping time and which is very promising.
Development of transport infrastructure will allow the Turkic speaking countries to expand mutual economic cooperation and enhance their role in the region.
There are proposals to develop cooperation in other areas of economy as well. So, it was proposed to create a joint tourist product "Turkic Council-Modern Silk Road" at the summit.
On top of it all, the Kazakh president proposed to create a common Turkic integration fund, attract the business circles and sponsors of the member states of the council, which will help finance joint projects of Turkic speaking countries.
Thus, a new union of countries, which has the potential to become more successful than the neighboring artificially created integration associations torn apart from the inside by internal contradictions and conflicts of interests, emerges gradually and naturally on the Eurasian space.
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Elena Kosolapova is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
