Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova talked at the press conference that followed the 14^th Plenary Meeting of TURKPA held in Kazakhstan’s capital city of Astana on 12 June. She mentioned the transfer of the TURKPA Presidency from the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, expressing her confidence that this presidency will contribute in its own way to a continued solidification of the Organisation and strengthening of our common cause.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova then remarked that the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan attached a very serious importance to the activities within the frameworks of TURKPA. As she added, the bilateral and multilateral co-operation of the Milli Majlis with the parliaments of the fraternal countries had at its core the idea of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, namely, ‘The Turkic World is Our Family. We Have No Other Family.’

What Speaker Sahiba Gafarova said further was that the unity and solidarity of our peoples which originate from the same root and share the common national and spiritual values were perfectly natural. Today, the unity and the solidarity manifest themselves in the strengthening and broadening of the bilateral and multilateral connections between our brotherly countries as well as in their mutual support and joint activities that become more robust by the day.

According to the Speaker of the Milli Majlis, the Turkic co-operation organisations, too, factor importantly in the process. The packed co-operation agenda has necessitated not only the traditional summit gatherings of the Heads of State of the Organisation of Turkic States but also informal high-level meetings. She particularly mentioned that the initiative for such meetings was put forward by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The first informal summit took place in July last year in Azerbaijan’s cultural capital, the city of Shusha, liberated from Armenian occupation, while the second was held in May this year in Budapest.

Saying that she keeps in focus consistently the issue of how parliamentarians as representatives of our fraternal peoples can contribute to this process, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova emphasised that, in this regard, the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States serves as a vital platform that offers opportunities to pursue our shared interests and directs our multifaceted collaboration towards achieving a common goal.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova proceeded to say that TURKPA has negotiated a considerable path of progress over the past years and has become an efficient mechanism of mutually advantageous co-operation amongst our parliaments. She then mentioned the successful 14^th meeting of the TURKPA Assembly Council and the Assembly’s Plenary Meeting. According to her, the work done in the past period as well as plans for the future have been reviewed. The Astana Declaration that capped the Plenary Meeting is the expression of our common position regarding the issues of interest to our countries as well as of our parliaments’ mutual confidence and support.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis