The 9th session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA) organized by Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis kicked off in Baku on December 18th.

Initially, participants of the plenary session visited the grave of founder of independent Azerbaijan, national leader Heydar Aliyev at the Alley of Honor.

Afterwards, the guests honored at the Alley of Martyrs the memory of the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of our lands and the territorial integrity of our country and laid flowers in front of the "Eternal Flame" Memorial.  

Members of the delegation also visited the monument to the Turkish soldiers-martyrs.

Then, the plenary session kicked off. Addressing the event, chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Mustafa Sentop noted that the Turkic people share the common history. Reminding of the fact that a part of the Azerbaijani territories still remains under occupation, Mustafa Sentop said that Turkey is on Azerbaijan’s side on this issue.

Chairman of Azerbaijan's Milli Majlis Ogtay Asadov expressed his gratitude to Turkey for its successful chairmanship over TURKPA. He stressed that TURKPA has become an influential parliamentary organization. The works launched in the previous years will be continued. The development of international relations of the organization will still be in focus. The activity of the observation mission of TURKPA will be kept in focus throughout the following year. The chairman expressed confidence that TURKPA will successfully fulfill all the tasks set. 

***

The 9th session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA) has been held in Baku with the organization of Milli Majlis.

The main topic of the 9th plenary session of TURKPA was “The Parliamentary Diplomacy in the Turkic World: Strengthening the Regional Cooperation for the sake of Peace and Security”. Prior to the plenary session, at the meeting of the Assembly Council, Azerbaijan took over the chairmanship over the organization from Turkey.

Chairman of Azerbaijan's Milli Majlis Ogtay Asadov, chairman of the Kazakh Parliament Nurlan Nigmatulin, chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament Dastanbek Zhumabekov, chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Mustafa Sentop, chairperson of the Senate of the Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan Tanzila Narbayeva, as well as representatives of the Turkic cooperation institutions and international organizations addressed the plenary session. They discussed the development of the cooperation within the Assembly.    

It was noted that the significance and role of the parliamentary diplomacy have increased in the contemporary world. It was highlighted that the inter-parliamentary cooperation would help resolve the conflicts existing in the region. Therefore, first of all, the development of the cooperation based on mutual trust is important.

The observer status was given to the Parliament Assembly of the the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation at the session. TURKPA confirmed the budget project for 2020.

The model bills “On Tourism” and “On the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage” were adopted. It was stressed that during Azerbaijan’s chairmanship over the organization, the model bill “On the Fight against Terrorism” will be prepared. Women’s and Youth’s Parliament groups were created. The report of the international observation mission of the organization on the snap Presidential elections in Kazakhstan was heard. At the end of the meeting, the Baku Declaration was adopted. The next meeting of the Assembly will be held in Kazakhstan next year. After the plenary session, speaking at the press conference, the speakers of the participating countries expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for organizing the meeting at a high level.