Azerbaijan, Baku, 11 January /corr. Trend I.Alizade / The Turkic peoples residing in the autonomous as part of the various countries, are expected to be represented in the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries. "Firstly, the independent Turkic states and then the Turkic peoples residing in autonomous in the various countries, especially in Russia and China, will be represented in the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries," Nizami Jafarov, the Head of Azerbaijan Parliament's working group for relations with Turkey and the Chairman of Permanent Culture Commission, reported to Trend.
There are six Turkic countries around the world: Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Nearly, 20 Turkic autonomous are located in the countries worldwide. The establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries was discussed at the 11th congress of the Turkic-speaking countries, which took place in Baku in 2007. According to Jafarov, in the final stage the Turkic peoples residing in the various countries are expected to be represented in the Assembly as well. "These include -the Turks residing in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia as well as the Southern Azerbaijanis," he said.
According to the Commission's Chairman, the discussions are still in progress for the shape and activity principles of the Assembly. "There are proposals to establish the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries: in the form of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe or in the form of consultation- advisory structure," he said.
Jafarov stated that establishing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-speaking countries without studying international experience, may present some problems in the future. Jafarov considers that there is a need to expand the relations between the Parliaments of the Turkic countries, in order to establish the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries. For this, there is a need to form a commission for establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly. This issue may be discussed, at the coming meeting of the State Heads. It is impossible to decide upon this issue, without the will of the Presidents. An agreement on this should be reached at the level of Presidents. The Heads of the Turkic countries positively approach this issue. It is the high time to decide this issue, he said.