Azernews.Az

Turkish Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan's visit to Azerbaijan initially scheduled to begin Wednesday has been postponed indefinitely for technical reasons, a source from the Milli Majlis (Azerbaijani parliament) told AzerNEWS.
In an interview ahead of the planned three-day visit, Toptan said he intended to table the issue of establishing a parliamentary assembly of Turkic states in Baku. He reminded that the proposal, backed by Azerbaijan, Turkey and Kazakhstan, was put forth for the first time by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev at a meeting in the Turkish resort city of Anatolia.
"We hope that along with these three countries, other Turkic states will welcome the initiative," the Turkish speaker said. "We will broadly discuss the idea of setting up a common permanent parliamentary body. If we succeed in materializing it, the new entity will serve to expanding our relations in investments, culture, literature, history and other fields. In doing so, we will be able to meet regularly to address concrete issues and to eliminate some misunderstanding that emerges every now and then. This is a great opportunity for the future."
The proposal to establish a parliamentary assembly was tabled at a congress of Turkic states and communities in Baku earlier this month attended by over 800 delegates from 30 countries.
Toptan emphasized that Turkey and Azerbaijan have already forged close ties between their parliaments, citing the high-level activity of inter-parliamentary friendship groups.
"The fact that ties between the two legislative bodes are based on wholesome grounds will promote closer cooperation in other fields," Toptan said.
During the visit, the Turkish speaker was to meet with Azerbaijani officials and hold meetings in several local universities.