Baku, November 21, AZERTAC

The Eighth Plenary Session of TURKPA hosted by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey took place on November 20-21 in Izmir.

The meeting was attended by Chairman of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ogtay Asadov, Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nurlan Nigmatulin, Toraga of Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic Dastanbek Dzhumabekov, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and TURKPA Chairman-in-Office Binali Yildirim, as well as Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly Laszlo Kover, in capacity of observer in TURKPA and Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Hatamzhon Ketmonov as a guest.

Also representatives of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (CCTS), TURKSOY, Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation, Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Parliamentary Union of OIC member States (PUIC), as well as Union of Turkic World Engineers and Architects, Ahmet Yesevi University and World League of Turkic Youth took part in the Session.

In his opening remarks, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Binali Yıldırım expressed his gratitude to his Kyrgyz counterpart for his valuable contribution to the activities of the Assembly during the TURKPA Chairmanship of the Jogorku Kenesh and hailed the participation of the parliamentary delegations of Hungary and Uzbekistan in the Plenary Session. He noted that TUKRPA has made great strides over the past decade and expressed his confidence that cooperation within TURKPA will continue developing.

Positively assessing the past decade of the Assembly, Speaker of Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov emphasized that each member countries has its unique history of parliamentary diplomacy and TURKPA contributed to the strengthening of inter-parliamentary relations through parliamentary diplomacy.

Stressing that TURKPA pursued a path of development over the past ten years, Nurlan Nigmatulin noted that activities of the Assembly positively affects the enhancement of cooperation among the Turkic-speaking countries and gaining great benefits.

Noting that cooperation among the Turkic-speaking countries is in the interests of all member countries, Dastanbek Dzhumabekov stressed the significant role of parliamentary diplomacy in development of cooperation among the Turkic-speaking countries.

Noting importance of cooperation with Turkic-speaking countries, László Kövér noted that Hungary pays particular attention to the friendship and close cooperation with Turkic-speaking countries.

Expressing his pleasure for participation in the Plenary Session as a guest, Hatamzhon Ketmonov thanked for the invitation and wished the organization success in its future activities.

The agenda of the Eighth Plenary Session included adoption of reports and recommendations of the last meetings of the TURKPA commissions, reports of the TURKPA international observers’ missions on presidential election in Azerbaijan and presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey. Sadyk Sher-Niyaz was re-elected as the Chairman of the TURKPA Commission on Social, Cultural and Humanitarian Affairs, while İsmet Uçma and Recep Şeker were approved as the Chairman of the TURKPA Commission on Legal Affairs and International Relations and Deputy Chairman of the Commission on Environment and Natural Resources, respectively.

It was decided to hold the next Ninth Plenary Session of TURKPA in 2019 in Azerbaijan.

At the end of the meeting, Izmir Declaration, final document of the Eighth Plenary Session, was adopted.

Following the Plenary Session, a press conference was held during which chairmen of member parliaments positively assessed the results of the Eighth Plenary Session.