President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has addressed the participants of the Fifth Meeting of the Secretaries of the Security Councils of the member countries of the Organization of Turkic States.
elchi reports that the address states:
“Dear participants of the event!
I sincerely greet you in the city of Baku at the Fifth Meeting of the Secretaries of the Security Councils of the member countries of the Organization of Turkic States. Welcome to Azerbaijan! It is a source of satisfaction that this prestigious event is being organized in Azerbaijan for the first time.
Our brotherly peoples are united as a strong family by common ethnic roots, language, culture, and traditions. The Organization of Turkic States, which formalizes our natural alliance, is a clear example of the unity and effective interaction of our friendly and brotherly countries, located in a vast geographical space and encompassing enormous political and economic potential.
Today, the Turkic world has entered a stage of its rise. The conditions of peace, tranquility, and stability prevailing in our countries, and the successfully continued development processes, are a great achievement of our peoples and states.
The Karabakh Victory, won by Azerbaijan six years ago and a source of our common pride and honor, laid the foundation for a new geopolitical reality in the region. This Victory also created the ground for the realization of the Zangezur corridor – a historic gateway that connects our countries economically, logistically, and strategically. Taking this opportunity, I express my gratitude to the countries you represent for their support in the reconstruction and restoration of our liberated territories. These initiatives are met with deep sympathy and gratitude by the Azerbaijani people.
Our unbreakable friendship and brotherhood are among the main factors that determine the growing international prestige and potential of the Organization of Turkic States, our unified family, and the transformation of the Organization into one of the world’s powerful geopolitical centers.
Within the framework of its chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States, Azerbaijan spares no effort to contribute to the further strengthening of unity and solidarity among our countries, the realization of the broad potential of our mutual activities, and the sustainable development, peace, and security of our region as a whole. The Declaration adopted at the Gabala Summit last year is an important roadmap encompassing the close cooperation and integration of member countries in political, economic, energy, humanitarian, military, and security fields.
Within the framework of our chairmanship, we are making efforts to develop the Middle Corridor, an important transport and logistics project that connects Europe and Asia and contributes to the prosperity of Turkic states, including the Zangezur corridor and other transport links.
One of the landmark events coinciding with our chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States is the holding of the Turkic World Week in Azerbaijan, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the First Turkological Congress. Taking this opportunity, I express my respect to the esteemed leaders of the member countries of the Organization and thank them for the addresses they sent to the Congress and, in general, for their constant support for the work of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s chairmanship in the Organization of Turkic States.
Dear participants of the event!
In the modern world, along with traditional threats, new challenges that worry humanity are emerging, including cyber threats, new centers of instability are being created, and a crisis of international law is being observed. All of these make it imperative to define our common agenda for solving regional and global problems, to form a unified position on important issues, and to coordinate our activities in all directions. The military exercises we conduct on a bilateral basis, while contributing to our cooperation in the field of defense, once again clearly confirm the strategic nature of our interstate relations.
Cooperation between the security councils of the member countries of the Organization of Turkic States is an indicator that the integration process of the Turkic world is not limited only to political, economic, and cultural spheres, but also has a long-term strategic character.
Regular meetings of the Secretaries of the Security Councils to exchange views on current security issues are of exceptional importance in terms of identifying common global and regional threats and risks and exploring ways to neutralize them, raising the dialogue in the field of security in the Organization of Turkic States space to a completely new level and serving the formation of a common security architecture. Issues such as international terrorism, transnational organized crime, illicit drug trafficking, religious extremism, combating hybrid threats, and the protection of critical infrastructure are matters that no state can solve alone. For this reason, as an important coordination mechanism, a great responsibility rests on the security councils.
I am confident that the discussions to be held during the Meeting on important issues on the agenda, as well as the initiatives and proposals to be put forward, will make a significant contribution to the tranquility and secure future of our countries, and to the transformation of the Turkic world into a more resilient and unbreakable force in the face of global threats.
I wish success to the work of the Meeting.”