Baku to host economic forum of Turkic-speaking countries
By Nazrin Gadimova
Baku is expected to host the 1st Forum of Economists from Turkic-speaking countries in accordance with the decision of the Presidium of Azerbaijan's National Academy of Sciences (ANAS).
The event will bring together about 100 scientists from five Turkic-speaking countries and 150 scientists from Azerbaijan.
The forum is aimed at analyzing social-economic processes in the member countries, developing cooperation between the countries, and organizing joint scientific and strategic researches.
The importance of holding the first forum comes from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's call for deeper economic cooperation among the Turkish-speaking countries at the third Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking countries, which was held in Gabala on August 16, 2013.
TURKSOY is an international cultural organization of countries with Turkic populations whose languages belong to the Turkic language family.
The organization has its roots going back to the 1992 meetings in Baku and Istanbul, where the ministers of culture from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan declared their commitment to cooperate in a joint cultural framework. TURKSOY was subsequently established by an agreement signed on July 12, 1993 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The meetings of TURKSOY artists have been held since 1997. Works created by the artists are stored in the TURKSOY art collection.
Experts believe that Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan can cooperate in the oil and gas industry, and cooperation is particularly possible in the transportation of energy and other areas.
Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan are also planning to create tripartite relations in the framework of which foreign ministers of these countries meet annually.
As for the Kyrgyz-Azerbaijani relations, Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR plans to construct an oil refinery on Kyrgyzstan's territory. The agreement on constructing the oil refinery was reached by the parties at a meeting of Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev and SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev, held in January, 2013.
It is assumed that Kazakhstan will be the resource base for the oil refinery, but the conditions for the supply of crude oil are still unknown.