Baku hosts meeting of TURKPA member parliaments
By Sara Rajabova
Baku has hosted the second joint meeting of the Committees in charge on social policy and health care of the TURKPA member parliaments.
The meeting was held under the auspices of the Azerbaijani Chairmanship of TURKPA and led by Hadi Rajabli, Chairman of the Committee on Social Policy of Azerbaijani parliament.
The meeting was dedicated to the migration challenges and opportunities for the TURKPA countries and was organized with support of the Baku Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The delegations of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey, as well as the representatives of the IOM Headquarters, State Migration Service of Azerbaijan took part in the meeting, AzerTag state news agency reported.
Welcoming the participants, Rajabli drew the attention to the fact that the meeting coincided with the anniversary of the TURKPA’s establishment on 21 November 2008 and after six years of the Assembly’s activities this coincidence is symbolized with constant development of the cooperation among the countries in the TURKPA’s framework.
He emphasized the importance of this meeting, as migration emerges to be one of the core issues for Azerbaijan and for other member countries.
Necdet Unuvar, head of the Committee on Health, Family, Labor and Social Affairs of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, reminded participants that a first joint meeting of the committees was held on 8 April 2014 in Ankara upon the initiative of the Turkish Parliament. He noted that the first meeting had introductory agenda and members of the committees of the four parliaments had an opportunity to share experiences on the national social policies along with identifying new areas of cooperation among the member countries.
Unuvar added that this second meeting would contribute to the wider exchange of information and development of interaction among the member countries on the migration policies of the member countries.
Kamal Burkhanov, member of the Committee on Social and Cultural Affairs of Mazhilis of the Kazakhstan Parliament, pointed out cultural, social, economic and other various dimensions of migration that appear in all member countries with both positive and negative consequences.
Jill Helke, Director of the IOM Department on International Cooperation and Partnership, informed participants on the cooperation mechanism established between IOM and all Turkic-speaking countries. She expressed the view that all TURKPA member countries have excellent relationships with IOM and prospects of granting an observer status to TURKPA in the IOM could be considered in future that would provide a full access to the IOM data base.
Serhan Aktoprak, Head of the IOM Baku Office, informed participants on the IOM-led projects in Turkic-speaking countries and pointed out priorities of cooperation between organization and member countries.
Furthermore, Perviz Musayev, Deputy Head of the State Migration Service of Azerbaijan, informed participants on the last developments of the national migration policies of the country. He noted that Azerbaijan had done enormous work and improved its regulatory and institutional framework in the migration field, as a result of profound policy conducted by former president and national leader Heydar Aliyev and his successor Ilham Aliyev.
Parliamentarians conducted exchange of information on the national legislation, latest trends and prospects of cooperation among the member parliaments in the field of migration.
In the meeting’s framework, participants were received by Ogtay Asadov, TURKPA Chairman-in-Office and Chairman of Azerbaijani parliament and by Ziyafat Asgarov, First Deputy Chairman of the parliament.
The meeting was ended with adoption of the conclusions on the migration challenges and opportunities for the member countries.
It was suggested that a third joint meeting of the committees in charge of social policy to be hosted by the next Kazakhstani Chairmanship of TURKPA in 2015.