Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend I.Alizade / The talks on the establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-speaking countries are continuing. The Chairman of the Turkish-Azerbaijani Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group, MP Khaluk Ipek, said on 27 September in Baku that this organization will serve the development of relations amongst Turkic-speaking countries.
"If the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-speaking countries is established and the parliamentarians hold periodical meetings, the relations between the countries will expand," Ipek said.
The establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-speaking countries has already been a topic of discussion for several years, but the countries have not been hurrying in making a decision. During the Congress of the Turkic-speaking countries which took place in 2007 in the Turkish city of Antalya, the representatives of the countries highlighted the benefits of the Assembly.
"It is impossible to establish the Assembly within a short time. The Turkic-speaking countries should prepare for it," the Turkish MP said.
There are six independent Turkic-speaking countries - Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan and more than twenty Turkic-speaking autonomous republics.