Turkic unity at the heart of Azerbaijan's foreign policy priorities Nurturing historical bonds

Despite all pressure from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic States (TurkPA) will continue to support Azerbaijan. Chairman of the TurkPA Commission on Legal Affairs and International Relations, Turkish MP Osman Mesten, made the statement at the XI meeting of the Commission held in Baku.

"Despite all PACE pressures, we will always stand by brotherly Azerbaijan," said Mesten. He called for the development of relations with international organisations, in particular with the Organisation of Turkic States, adding that Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which are seen as favourable members of TurkPA, should be included.

And it was the right thing to do. In fact, in the conditions of global geopolitical turbulence, every country needs to find its fulcrum of stability. Azerbaijan has understood for a long time that the collective West, with its double standards and its support for Armenia, even in cases where it has committed a large number of proven and undeniable crimes, will never perceive our country as being mentally and culturally close to itself. In the best-case scenario, the West will do business with us since Western nations strictly protect their markets from any competitive products.

We can see how this works in practice when we look at Ukraine, which saw its agricultural products blocked by seemingly friendly Poland. In France and Germany, too, the issue of protecting the internal agricultural market and the EU's common market from imports from third countries has become a matter of great urgency. The issue of financial and military aid to Ukraine is similarly acute. There is no end to the disputes over this issue.

These are the real prospects for the comprehensive development of our economic, political and all other relations with the collective West, as we can see by the example of provocations in PACE and the European Parliament, are ready to look for the speck in the eyes of Azerbaijan while failing to notice the beam Armenia's eye.

Under these circumstances, a return to our roots is the most logical and correct thing to do. I am talking about Turkic unity. Let us recall Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's words at the inauguration ceremony on February 14. "We have no other family. Our family is the Turkic world," the head of state said. He noted that Azerbaijan's policies demonstrate this. "We have brotherly relations with all the member countries of the Organisation of Turkic States, and our policy is to strengthen the Organisation of Turkic States. It is a big geography, a big territory, a big military power, a big economy, natural resources, transport routes, a young population, a growing population, and we are peoples of the same kind, of the same roots. Can there be a stronger unity than that? Of course not. We must work together to make the Organisation of Turkic States a major player and power centre on the global stage. We can only do this together," the Azerbaijani president said at the time.

Subsequently, during his official visit to brotherly Türkiye, the head of our state made some other important statements. He stressed that the unification of the Turkic world, and unity of peoples with common roots will help strengthen each member of the OTS. The Azerbaijani President made the statement while addressing the press after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Stating that an informal summit of the OTS will be held in Shusha in July this year, the head of state went on to say: "At the same time, at my invitation, the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which has observer status, will be a participant in this meeting, and this will be another strong impetus for our common cause, the cause of unity of the Turkic peoples."

But there was more. Today, Turkish-Azerbaijani unity has become an important factor not only for the region but also for Eurasia, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pointed out. "We will continue to take steps related to international organisations and continue our efforts, first of all, within the framework of the Organisation of Turkic States. This is a priority for us," the head of state said at the time.

The open and bold statement of the Turkic Chamber of Commerce to continue to stand by Azerbaijan despite all the pressure exerted by the PACE is proof of the right priorities set by our country, a proof of the strength, unity, and cohesion of the Turkic states, of which Azerbaijan is a significant part.