Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. К.Zarbaliyeva / The force of the Turkish world is in its unification, Yusif Halachaoglu, the head of the Turkish History Institute, said.
The 11th meeting of friendship, fraternity and cooperation of the Turkic nations and societies began in Baku on 17 November. The Congress brings together nearly 550 delegates from 30 countries, including the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister of Turkey, Rajab Tayyub Erdogan and high-ranking governmental representatives of the Turkic-speaking states.
According to Halachaoglu, the Congress approves the unity of language, history and culkture of Turkic nations. Azerbaijan is the centre of Turkism. "The first Republic in the Turkish world was established in Azerbaijan. The essential event is that the Congress of Turkic nations is being held in Azerbaijan," Halachaoglu said. The Turkish unification may be stronger than the European. "Turkic nations have general history, culture and languages," Halachaoglu said.
According to a member of the Turkish Great National Assembly (Parliament) professor Jalal Arbai, unification of the Turkish world will precipitate settlement of the periodically arising problem with Armenia. "The problem with Armenia the Turkish world is facing is our disgrace. I was born in Trabzon. For me there is no difference between Trabzon and Nagorno-Karabakh. Occupation of 20% of my native land makes me feel ashamed and sorry. It is impossible to forget the Khojaly massacre. Different commissions will participate in the meeting and will resolve the problem. Some decision will be definitely found," the MP said.
The meeting is expected to include 1,150 attendees. They will discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, lifting of North Cyprus from international isolation, the state with Turkic speaking nations residing in Iraq and Afghanistan, difficulties in retuning the Akhiska Turks back to their lands. The purpose of the meting is to enhance friendship, fraternity and cooperation among Turkish states and communities, to assist informational exchange, to enable Turks to meet closer, to propagandize Turkic culture, to hold arrangements on expansion of economic cooperation, and to search common ways for tackling the problems persisting in Turkic nations.