Samarkand Declaration: Key tasks of Turkic World Another outcome of summit

This autumn is full of historical events in Uzbekistan’s political agenda, namely, the adoption of two Samarkand declarations at once. The final declaration of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was adopted following the SCO summit in Samarkand in September 2022. This declaration actually became the key document among more than 40 agreements, concepts and programmes. The Samarkand Declaration of the Organisation of Turkic States has been recently signed in the same ancient Turkic-Islamic civilisation centre following the summit of the Organisation of Turkic States.

A relevant topic entitled "New Era for Turkic Civilisation: Towards Common Development and Prosperity" was discussed at the summit on November 11. The event was organised by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov took part in the discussions.

Hungary, having the status of an observer country in the Organisation of Turkic States, was represented at the summit by Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of the Milli Gengesh (upper house of parliament), ex-president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, participated in the forum by representing another observer country - Turkmenistan. A new secretary general of the Organisation of Turkic States was elected as part of the event in connection with the expiration of the three-year term of office of Baghdad Amreyev.

A "Strategic Document", which includes the organisation's actions for the next five years and is aimed at implementing the roadmap of the Organisation of Turkic States for the next 20 years, was also approved. Despite the two Samarkand Declarations reflect different goals and objectives, the unifying factor of these two documents is the commitment to equal and mutually beneficial cooperation among the member states of these organisations, namely, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Organisation of Turkic States.

Before assessing the significance of the Samarkand Declaration of the Organisation of Turkic States, it is appropriate to recall the history of the creation of the Turkic Council, which was established at the initiative of Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The first summit of the heads of Turkic-speaking states, which, in fact, laid the foundations for cooperation, was held back in Ankara in 1992. However, later the Turkic Council was officially renamed the Organisation of Turkic States.

Along with the Samarkand Declaration, a protocol on amending the "Nakhchivan Agreement on the Establishment of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States" was also signed at the summit of the Organisation of Turkic States. The document was signed 13 years ago on October 3.

It is noteworthy that October 3 was declared the Day of Cooperation of the Turkic-speaking countries. The purpose of creating the Turkic Council was to intensify cooperation among the Turkic-speaking countries for the sake of stability and peace in the region.

This is also quite logical, because the basis of cooperation of all Turkic states is a common historical and cultural heritage, a common language.

According to expert estimates, over the past 13 years, cooperation among the Turkic-speaking countries has really intensified. The Council of Presidents, the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Elders, the Committee of Senior Officials have been created. The Turkic Council was renamed the Organisation of Turkic States following the eighth Summit of Leaders in November 2021. Uzbekistan became a full member of the organisation by increasing the number of participating countries to five at the seventh summit in Baku in October 2019.

As for the significance of the Samarkand Declaration, signed following the summit of the Organisation of Turkic States, this document confirmed the determination of the heads of states-participants in the summit to further intensify and expand cooperation within the multilateral framework of the Organisation of Turkic States.

Thus, according to the document, the member countries of the Organisation of Turkic States will continue holding regular consultations on security issues among governments and state organisations and will thoroughly coordinate defence and military issues.

In particular, the document emphasises the importance of strengthening cooperation among member states in the digital economy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Special attention in the declaration is paid to interaction in the economic field, in particular, the implementation of pilot IT projects, such as "e-signature", the creation of digital platforms for e-services.

The cooperation on the transformation of public services in the improvement of the Trans-Caspian fiber-optic infrastructure and IT infrastructure as part of the Digital Silk Road project has been also envisaged.

The heads of state of the Organisation of Turkic States supported the construction of the "Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China" and "Termez-Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar" railway lines. It also has a positive effect on increasing the capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, on expanding better transportation routes between Europe and Asia, and on diversifying transportation routes, including the launch of the Zangazur corridor.

The cooperation agreement on the construction project of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway section within Kyrgyzstan was signed at the summit of the leaders of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Samarkand in September 2022.

This agreement envisages the completion of a feasibility study along the Torugart-Yachmen-Makmal-Jalalabad route, in which the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway construction process will be observed no later than June 1, 2023.

Central Asia will be fully provided with access to the markets of Southeast and West Asia, as well as the Middle East through the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project in the future, which is very important.

The following point in the document deserves special attention.

The document appreciates the proclamation of Bursa city of the Republic of Türkiye as the “Cultural Capital of the Turkic World” in 2022, praises the declaration of Shusha city as the “Cultural Capital of the Turkic World in 2023”, as well as the announcement of Shamakhi city as the “Tourist Capital of the Turkic World” in 2023.

The cultural events will be held in these cities through the support of such authoritative organisations as TURKSOY.
However, that's not all. Besides the signing of the Samarkand Declaration, the logical outcome of the recent summit in Uzbekistan was the approval of the “Strategy of the Organisation of Turkic States for 2022-2026” to implement the document “Turkic World Vision 2040”, on the basis of which decisions were made on the Trade Facilitation Strategy of the Organisation of Turkic States and on the announcement of Samarkand city as the capital of the Turkic civilisation.

It is obvious that the Samarkand Declaration put forward important tasks that should be jointly addressed by all the states of the Turkic family today in the new conditions of the global reorganisation of the world.