The 13^th meeting of the Council of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States (TürkPA) took place on 6 June.

Acting Chairman of the TürkPA and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye Numan Kurtulmuş declared the 13^th meeting of the TürkPA Council open and thanked Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova for the event’s high-level organisation and hospitality.

Numan Kurtulmuş said that, looking back upon the period from the Assembly’s inception and to our days, and upon also the work done so far, one could safely say that the TürkPA that occupies a special place amongst the Turkic co-operation institutions is growing and developing from day to day.

Then, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye Numan Kurtulmuş ceded the TürkPA chairmanship to Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova. He wished the Azerbaijani side which will be chairing the Organisation in the coming period every success.

Saying that she was proud to accept the acting current chairmanship of the TürkPA, Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova added that the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan would be making efforts in the coming period to implement measures necessary for achieving the goals of the Organisation as well as further development of co-operation.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova expressed satisfaction with that the main events of the Assembly had been held in Baku during more than 15 years of activity of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States. She expressed her confidence that the discussions to be held today will help to achieve the set goals.

She proceeded to emphasise the Azerbaijan Republic’s appreciation of the contribution of the TürkPA to the deepening of the ties of friendship and co-operation amongst our countries. The constant measures to strengthen the Turkic unity constitute a priority area the Azerbaijani State’s foreign policy, according to the Speaker of Milli Majlis who remarked then that activities at the 13^th Plenary Session of the TürkPA had started yesterday. The agendas of both the Council meeting and the Plenary Session are quite full, too.

Talking further, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova addressed the end put to the 30-year occupation and how Azerbaijan had restored her territorial integrity consequent to the 44 days’ Patriotic War. She said also that Azerbaijan had regained sovereignty over the whole of her territory in September last year and an extraordinary presidential election was held in the country on 7 February this year. Our people cast votes in favour of the future development of the Azerbaijani State which had made its territorial integrity and sovereignty whole again.

As she mentioned the relevance of the topicality of the Parliamentary Assembly’s 13^th Plenary Meeting, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis also referred to Azerbaijan’s eventual hosting in November of the COP29 – the biggest international event on counteracting climate change. The discussions and decisions to emanate from today’s Plenary Meeting of the TürkPA ‘Green Horizons for the Turkic World: the Role of Parliaments in Fulfilling the Green Agenda’ will come as a manifestation of our parliamentary support for the struggle against climate changes and our countries’ collaboration in green energy.

Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye Numan Kurtulmuş, Speaker of the Joğorqu Keñeş of the Kyrgyz Republic Nurlanbek Shakiyev and Speaker of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerlan Qoşanov who spoke then thanked the Speaker of the Milli Majlis for the event’s organisation and hospitality, and wished the Azerbaijani side success with the chairmanship tenure.

The speakers said they were certain that the exchanges of opinions and decision to come from the 13^th meetings – of both the TürkPA Council and Plenum – will contribute dramatically to on-going strengthening of the Organisation’s work.

Several organisational matters were reviewed and appropriate decisions were made at the meeting.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis