The 13th Plenary Meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic States (TurkPA), dubbed ‘Green Horizons for the Turkic World: Role of Parliaments in Achieving a Green Agenda’ took place at the Milli Majlis on 6 June.

Opening the meeting, the TurkPA Chairwoman-in-Office and Speaker of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan Sahiba Gafarova greeted the Speakers of Parliament and Delegations of the all the fraternal Turkic states, and said she was certain that the forthcoming discussions at the session would promote a continued expansion of our co-operation and joint endeavours.

She declared the intention of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan to take every step necessary whilst presiding over the TurkPA to strengthen the ties amongst our parliaments.

In her continued speech, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis quoted to the participants the words that President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan had uttered at the swearing-in ceremony at the Milli Majlis on 14 February, namely, ‘Our family is the Turkic World. We have no other family’. It was then emphasised that promotion of the relations with the Turkic states would remain one of the foreign political priorities of Azerbaijan. According  to Mrs Gafarova, the co-operation amongst our brotherly countries progresses successfully enough, be it bilaterally or in the multilateral format. The numerous visits exchanged, joint projects and steps taken in the economic, energy, transport and other fields as well as the collaboration and mutual support in the international arena vividly demonstrate the extensive scale of this co-operation.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova said with contentment that a co-operation on the equally as high level is going on amongst our legislatures as well. The period since the 12^th Plenary Meeting is remembered by reciprocal visits of Presidents of Parliament, regular meetings and joint participation upon various platforms. All that further solidifies our countries’ unity and solidarity whilst also bringing our peoples yet closer together.

As she was talking about the role of each Turkic co-operation organisation in the deepening of the multilateral connexions amongst our countries, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis remarked that those entities’ uniting the peoples and the countries with the common culture, history, language and spiritual values was their most prominent distinguishing feature. The activities of each of those organisations grows stronger and more important as time goes by.

The Speaker underscored the importance of placing those organisations at the centre of the many-sided activities of our countries so as all the steps necessary to strengthen the unity further should be taken.

The Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan proceeded to say that the roles of parliaments and parliamentary diplomacy were mounting internationally these days. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic States that unites the legislative assemblies under one umbrella is of utmost significance in this sense. According to the Speaker of the Milli Majlis, the TurkPA which turned 15 years last year does not only encompass practical co-operation, experience exchanges and collaboration in the realm of legislation. Rather, it is also an important mechanism to demonstrate our shared stance internationally and to protect the interests of our countries. This subject takes on added relevance in light of the double standards and bias in several inter-parliamentary organisations. The TurkPA, at the same time, provides for a greater expansion of our parliaments’ co-operation along new vectors.

Having said that the Organisation had enriched its work with new content in response to the call and realia of the day, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova mentioned the establishment of the Groups of Young Parliamentarians and of Women Parliamentarians at the 9^th Plenary Meeting in Baku in 2019. The first meeting of the chairs of the Turkic parliaments’ committees of external relations took place in Baku in April this year and the first meeting of the TurkPA legislatures’ defence committee chairs was held in Ankara in May. It is essential to continue the efforts aimed at the overall institutional development of the Organisation in view of the current regional and global processes as well as the existing challenges, according to Sahiba Gafarova.

The Speaker also said that the TurkPA was granted an observer status with the Non-Aligned Movement’s Parliamentary Network at the third conference of the NAM PN under the chairmanship of the Milli Majlis in Geneva in March this year. That, too, will serve to broaden the operational scope of the Organisation.

Today’s plenum is dedicated to the subject of green horizons for the Turkic World and parliaments’ role in fulfilling the green agenda. Sahiba Gafarova lauded the tabling of the subject-matter as a timely move that our parliaments are making in an epoch wherein climate change is turning into a serious global problem.

According to Mrs Gafarova, our countries are already putting forth serious initiatives  to combat climate change on the national, regional and global levels and, on the other hand, have declared the intention to combine efforts to address environmental issues. The first steps are being taken in the green-energy co—operation field. Sahiba Gafarova mentioned the necessity of bolstering parliamentary support in all those fields.

Sahiba Gafarova recalled one of the material provisions of the Astana Act, adopted at the 10^th jubilee Summit of the Heads of State of the Organisation of Turkic States in Astana in November last yar. That provision concerned harmonisation of our countries’ legislations and elaboration of model laws. In this sense, it is commendable that drafting a model law on clean energy has been included in the TurkPA Secretariat’s work plan for the coming  year.

The clean environment and green development also occupy a pride of place on the agenda of Azerbaijan. According to the Speaker of the Milli Majlis, they constitute one of the five priorities in the new national development strategy for until 2030.

The year 2024 has been declared The Year of Solidarity for the Green World in Azerbaijan, according to Speaker Sahiba Gafarova who described the important steps taken in our country over the past few years to achieve a sizeable increase in renewables’ share in overall power supplies. One more wind PP and two solar PPs had their foundations laid together with the overseas partners during the Baku Energy Week two days ago. That will play a serious part in Azerbaijan’s achieving the goal of taking the renewables’ share in the set power capacity to 30 per cent by 2030.

The Speaker mentioned the continuation by the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan of the work on building up and streamlining the legislative framework for countering environmental problems and climate change before telling the audience of the 25 laws and codices adopted to that end. In 2021, the Parliament of Azerbaijan passed the law ‘On the Employment of Renewable Energy Sources in Generation of Electricity’. The public hearings that the Parliament holds periodically to cover environmental matters make it possible to put in legislation the opinions and suggestions  of all the stakeholders.

The Speaker of the Milli Majlis emphasised that the de-occupied territories of Azerbaijan are in the focus of the adopted strategic green energy vision as well. She said with regret that the almost 30-year-long occupation of our lands by Armenia had been accompanied by environmental terror, too. Armenia had been cutting down our forests, exploiting our natural resources illegally and polluting our soils and rivers. The President of Azerbaijan has declared those territories a ‘green energy zone’ and the work done continuously to reclaim and restore those use the ‘smart town and smart village’, ‘zero emission’ and ‘zero waste’ approaches. The ecosystem has been restored.

Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova talked about the forthcoming hosting by Azerbaijan of the 29^th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – the COP29. The unanimous election of our country as a host of this important international event heralds the international recognition of and support for Azerbaijan’s endeavours to combat climate change.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova then mentioned the intention of Azerbaijan to call for global solidarity in the face of climate change and to attempt to rally all the forces to the common goal during this event which will take place in Baku in November. Besides, the Milli Majlis and the Inter-Parliamentary Union are going to hold together a Parliamentary Meeting on the sidelines of the COP29. In the opinion of Speaker Gafarova, that assembly will make it possible to discuss parliaments’ role in apprehending climate change and what steps can be taken to that end.

TurkPA Chairwoman-in-Office Sahiba Gafarova wished the 13^th Plenary Meeting success.

Then came the introductory speeches by the Heads of Parliament of the TurkPA Member States. Those were Speaker of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerlan Qoşanov, Speaker of the Jogorku Kenges of the Kyrgyz Republic Nurlanbek Shakiyev, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkiye Numan Kurtulmuş and Head of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Tanzila Narbayeva. Also spoke the seniors of the legislative assemblies of the TurkPA Observers, namely, Speaker of the Supreme Majlis of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Zorlu Töre and Deputy Seaker of the National Assembly of Hungary Martha Matrai.

The plenum listened to the speeches by the leaders and delegates of the Turkic co—operation organisations, of the entities that are observers with the TurkPA, of international organisations and other organisations that co-operate with the TurkPA.

Thoughts and statements came from Secretary General of the Organisation of Turkic States Kurbanbek Omuraliyev, President of the Turkic Academy Shahin Mustafayev, President of the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation Aktoti Rahimkulova, Secretary General of the Black Sea Co-operation Parliamentary Assembly Asaf Hajiyev, Executive Director of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia Kayrat Saribayev, Deputy Secretary General of TURKSOY Sait Yusuf, Secretary General of the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation Ali Asgar Muhammadali Sijani, Director-General of the Islamic Organisation for Food Security (IOFS) Berik Arin, Chairman of the Union of Engineers and Architects of the Turkic World Ilyas Demirchi and Secretary General of the Manas University Oktay Yezgul.

The speakers thanked the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan and Speaker of the Milli Majlis  Sahiba Gafarova for hospitality. The meeting participants offered their congratulations on the hand-over of the TurkPA presidency to Speaker of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan Sahiba Gafarova and wished the Azerbaijani side success with the helming of the Organisation.

They said that the transition to green energy was amongst the global energy highlights. Generation of energy from the green sources matters for overcoming the problems posed by global climate change and the prevention  of global heating. The speakers also touched on opportunities in renewable energy and the need to employ environmentally clean energy resources efficiently. They talked about paying more attention to promoting green energy and the advantages of its use, which use will help reduce the dependence on the legacy energy resources and achieve environmentally favourable results.

The meeting participants laid down their views upon the essence of green energy, implementation of new technologies to generate it and the green economy concept. It was said that the use of green energy was important for  improving the environment whilst also influencing the solution of energy security issues dramatically, stimulating the introduction of new technologies and innovations and, additionally, the energy transition also promoted socio-economic development.

Those who took the floor at the plenum also talked about their countries’ geographical situations, climatic conditions, green energy application potentials, reforms in the national energy sectors and projects under way. They emphasised the importance of active co-operation amongst countries of the world in the application of green energy and of uniting efforts in international organisations. The other topic addressed was that of necessarily forming an appropriate legislative framework for the green industry to advance.

They underscored the crucial nature of the COP29 that will take place in Azerbaijan this year in terms of averting climatic problems. Improvement of the environmental situation, environmental protection and rational employment of natural resources are the issues in the focus of every state. In Azerbaijan, a serious kind of work is apace to promote green energy; our country is contributing to global economy in this field. The guests stressed that the COP29 going to be held in Azerbaijan had to do with our country’s successes in energy transition, its rich energy resources, economic development and growing international reputation.

Then, TurkPA Chairwoman-in-Office and Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova remarked that the TurkPA Plenary Meeting had been preceded by the meeting of the PA Council, attended by the participating Speakers of Parliament. The Assembly Council had approved the candidates to be elected to positions in the TurkPA, adopted a work plan and a draft budget for 2025, and passe draft final reports by the election and referenda monitoring missions, the draft agenda of the 13^th Plenary Meeting and the draft Baku Declaration. Besides, the Council had taken several other decisions, with one of those concerning the new flag and logo of the TurkPA. The TurkPA flag is hoisted in its new outlook already at the Plenary Meeting.

The agenda of the 13^th Plenary Meeting of the TurkPA was approved then and deliberations followed about the items put on it.

They also considered organisational matters and voiced the attitude to the candidate chairs of the TurkPA commissions and TurkPA Deputy Chairs as well as the Deputy Secretary General.

The reports and recommendatory resolutions of the TurkPA Commissions on legal matters and international affairs, on education, culture, social and humanitarian affairs, on economic co-operation, and on environment, natural resources and health were reviewed and approved.

Several draft model laws put together by the TurkPA were tabled then. Those included the Personal Data Protection Bill, the Bill on Training HR Matching Labour Market Needs, the Bill on Limiting Consumption of Tobacco Goods, The Trade Missions Bill and the Bill on the Basics of the Safety and Quality of Circulated Products.

The Bills were approved upon deliberations.

Going further, the plenum heard and noted the reports and recommendatory resolutions of the TurkPA Group of Women Parliamentarians and Group of Young Parliamentarians.

The meeting participants were made aware of the outcomes of the TurkPA missions which had monitored the constitutional referendum in the Republic of Uzbekistan on 30 April 2023, the presidential election and general parliamentary election, and the second round of presidential election in the Republic of Turkiye on 14 May 2023 and the extraordinary presidential election in the Republic of Uzbekistan on 9 July. As regards the Republic of Azerbaijan, the final reports of the missions that had monitored the extraordinary presidential election of 7 February 2024 were approved at the plenum.

Also, the plenum tabled, reviewed and passed the 2025 Fiscal Year Budget of the TurkPA Secretariat.

It was decided to hold the 14^th Plenary Meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States in Kazakhstan in 2025.

The 13^th Plenary Meeting of the TurkPA was capped with the Baku Declaration.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis