Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries (Turk PA) commission for international relations held its second meeting in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on Tuesday, Azerbaijani state news agency AzerTAc reported.

The meeting was attended by members of parliament from Turk PA member-states - Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Turkish MP, deputy chief of the commission, Ulker Gozel, opened the meeting with a speech about TurkPA's role in developing and strengthening the cooperation among Turkic-speaking countries.

Kuanish Sultanov, member of international relations, defense and security committee of Kazakhstan's parliament, delivered a speech on "The role of Turkic Council, TurkPA and TURKSOY in developing cooperation among Turkic-speaking countries".

TurkPA Secretary-General Ramil Hasanov spoke about the activity of the assembly and noted TurkPA's deepening relations with international organizations. According to him, TurkPA has received observer status under organizations including OSCE PA and OIC IPA "and our activity in this direction continues".

Hasanov underlined the importance of cooperation among Turkic countries in resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The commission decided to hold its next meeting in Istanbul.

TurkPA was established on November 21, 2008 on the basis of an agreement signed by the parliament speakers of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey in Istanbul.

The first plenary meeting of TurkPA was held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku on September 29, 2009. With the secretariat based in Baku, TurkPA has the status of an international organization.

The main goal of Turk PA is to maintain the language, culture and history of Turkic-speaking countries, strengthen political, economic and cultural relations, mutual support in international organizations, and share experience in the legislative process.