Istanbul, September 16 (AZERTAC). The 10th summit of the Turkish-speaking countries` Heads of State has been held at the Ciragan palace in Istanbul, Turkey.

President Ilham Aliyev attended the event.

The first summit was held in Ankara in 1992. In 1994 the event was hosted by Istanbul, in 1995 by Bishkek, in 1996 by Tashkent, in 1998 by Astana, in 2000 by Baku, in 2001 by Istanbul, in 2006 by Antalya, and in 2009 by Nakhchivan.

Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov of Turkmenistan and President of Kyrgyzstan for transition period Roza Otunbaeva were welcomed by Turkish leader Abdullah Gul.

Turkey`s President made opening remarks.

President Ilham Aliyev addressed the event.

The following are excerpts from the speech:

“Esteemed Mr. President, my dear brother Abdullah Gul!

Dear friends, esteemed heads of state!

First of all I would like to express my deepest pleasure to be in brotherly Turkey again. My dear brother Abdullah Gul, thank you very much for the high-level organization of today`s summit. Thank you once again for the hospitality you have been showing to us. I believe the summit will have good results, and our countries will continue developing their cooperation and friendly and brotherly relations.”

“Last year`s summit in Nakhchivan, an ancient land of the Turkish world, was a remarkable event. And one year which passed since then marked the rapid development of our bilateral relations, which considerably strengthened both on the bilateral and multilateral formats. On the eve of the last year`s summit the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkish-speaking countries (TurkPA) held its first plenary meeting. TurkPA`s General Secretariat was established in Baku, which is today successfully working. At the same time, Azerbaijan put forward a proposal at the Nakhchivan summit to create a TURKSOY fund. And I thank my esteemed counterparts for supporting this initiative. The necessary preparatory work is already underway. The Fund will be established in the nearest future and Azerbaijan will ensure all the necessary financial support for the project. I believe the fund will contribute to preserving and reconstructing all cultural monuments across the Turkish world. And it must also contribute to developing friendly, brotherly relations among our nations in the field of culture.”

“We are bound together by ties of history and culture. For centuries our peoples have been living together. And I`m happy that today our countries are independent states, which are successfully cooperating in all spheres of life, supporting each other.”

“Unfortunately, we`ve not yet achieved any result in finding a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan`s most painful problem. For long years Azerbaijan`s territories have been under occupation. Some twenty 20 percent of our lands are under Armenia`s occupation. Over one million Azerbaijanis have been expelled from their homelands as a result of an ethnic cleansing policy. It is a big injustice. All international organizations, the world`s leading organizations have been supporting Azerbaijan`s just cause. Four resolutions of the UN Security Council still remain unfulfilled. These resolutions demand an unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijan`s lands. Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity must be restored. Similar resolutions were adopted by other international organizations as well, including the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, demanding international law-based settlement of the problem.”

“The Nagorno-Karabakh is an ancient Azerbaijani land. For centuries Azerbaijanis have been living and working there. Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity is recognized by the international community. Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity must be restored, and we want to achieve this by peaceful means. Azerbaijan is a multinational country. Representatives of different nations and religions are peacefully co-existing in our country. There has never been a religious or national conflict in Azerbaijan. The rights of all nations living in our country are protected. And, of course, the Armenians have also been living in the territory of Azerbaijan. They live here today, and their rights are also protected.”

“The international practice and international law support our position. The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict must be solved on the basis of Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity, with the Armenian minority receiving a high status of self-governance and autonomy within Azerbaijan. This is what the international law requires.”

“The Turkish world is a very big world. Separation of the Zangazur region, an ancient and integral part of the Turkish world, which was then given to Armenia, broke the geographical link within the Turkish world.”

“But the geographical coordinates are not the only factor linking us. We are bound by our relations, our brotherhood, our common past and present. For twenty years our countries have been living as independent states. Today, countries like Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan make Turkey stronger, just like, Turkey, in its turn, makes us stronger. Our strength is in our unity.”

“I would like to emphasize the development of the relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey, which signed a very important document yesterday. We signed a Joint Declaration “On establishment of the Council for high level strategic cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Turkey”. I believe the Council will be a success. We must increase efforts to boost our relations in all fields. Additional measures must be taken to encourage and expand our mutual trade and economic cooperation. We must explore opportunities of making mutual investment.”

“My dear brother Mr. Gul has today mentioned that we are working together on energy issues. The Turkey-Azerbaijan relations are very important in this regard. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum oil and gas pipelines have been making a tremendous contribution to the region`s energy map, having made it richer.”

“Opening of these corridors allowed us to deliver the natural resources of the Caspian to the world markets. Oil and oil products from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are being exported to the world markets, including Turkey, through the territory of Azerbaijan.”

“We are also working on a railway project. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will not only link Turkey with Azerbaijan, but also connect Turkey with Central Asia and Europe with Central Asia. This railroad is very attractive from the economic point of view, and it will also link friendly countries. And I believe the number of such projects will increase in the future.”

“I would like to once again emphasize the importance of today`s summit. I`m very happy that we have revived a tradition, which once was broken. The summit was held last year, we hold it this year, and, I believe, we will hold it next year as well.”

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Other heads of state also made remarks, which were followed by the signing of a final document.

They decided to hold the next summits in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

The heads of state appointed the chief of the Secretariat of the Turkish-speaking countries` Cooperation Council.

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