Politics
Turkic ‘family’ set for key Ankara summit to tackle challenges
Türkiye, which has successfully hosted numerous international summits this year, is continuing preparations for a meeting that Turkish officials often dub a “family council” of kindred countries. Leaders of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) will convene on Oct. 29-30 in Ankara. The summit is expected to be a milestone at which critical decisions will be made on the path toward the vision of the “Century of the Turkic World,” an ambitious idea of uniting Turkic countries as an influential bloc with a say in global affairs.
The presidents of member states Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, as well as observer states Hungary, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Turkmenistan, are expected to attend the meeting, where global and regional issues concerning the Turkic world will be discussed.
The OTS’ rotating presidency will be handed over to Türkiye from Azerbaijan. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to hold bilateral meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the other participating leaders. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is also scheduled to arrive in Ankara on Oct. 28 for talks as part of a bilateral visit.
At the Ankara summit, Turkic states will launch initiatives to take relations to a new level. Economic and trade ties, transportation and energy connectivity, and cooperation in education and technology will be on the agenda. The summit will also address global and regional issues concerning the Turkic world, with discussions focusing on strengthening the OTS’s institutional cooperation with international organizations and increasing its international influence and visibility.
As the importance of the Turkic countries continues to grow in a changing global system, efforts are underway to ensure the Turkic world endures for generations to come. Leaders and representatives of Turkic states will discuss a roadmap for building the “Century of the Turkic World” at the summit. In this regard, the Ankara summit is expected to mark a major turning point. Türkiye is signaling its determination to continue these efforts during its term as chair, with the aim of turning the Turkic world’s human, economic and strategic potential into shared prosperity and building the Turkic century through unity and solidarity.
The summit is also expected to reaffirm the commitment to pursuing initiatives in line with the Vision 2040 document, adopted in Istanbul in 2021. Prepared by the OTS, the document is the organization’s first foundational framework setting out its medium- and long-term strategic goals. It establishes a framework across four main areas: “political and security cooperation, economic and sectoral cooperation, people-to-people cooperation, and cooperation with third parties.”
The Organization of Turkic States was established under the name Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States through the Nakhchivan Agreement, signed by Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on Oct. 3, 2009. Its name was changed to the Organization of Turkic States at the Istanbul summit in 2021.
The OTS’s main objectives include “consolidating mutual trust among Turkic states, strengthening political solidarity, developing economic and technical cooperation, and documenting and promoting the historical and cultural heritage of the Turkic world.”
Headquartered in Istanbul, the OTS has five member states, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and four observers: Hungary, Turkmenistan, the TRNC and the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu once received red-carpet treatment by fellow lawmakers, but all he’s got now is a crude tape, rolled just a few inches from the door of his office at Parliament. The opposing room belongs to Murat Emir, deputy group chair of New Party (YP), a lawmaker who rose in the ranks of CHP under Kılıçdaroğlu. Emir denies that the tape was installed to avoid close contact with Kılıçdaroğlu and is merely a measure to prevent “crowding” outside the room of the CHP leader, but for many watching the rift between the two parties, it is a continuation of the bitter feud.
The incident is just another reflection of bitterness between CHP and YP, the latter of which was founded by CHP’s ousted chair Özgür Özel in July. YP accuses Kılıçdaroğlu and his associates of betraying the party by accepting a court verdict that reinstated Kılıçdaroğlu to the post he lost in a shady intraparty election late 2023. The new CHP administration, in turn, accuses the former one of corrupting Türkiye’s oldest party by picking mayors and top officials who were later arrested in corruption probes.
Broadcaster A Haber reported on Tuesday that Kılıçdaroğlu was also actively avoiding encounters with YP lawmakers at Parliament and even takes the stairs instead of the elevator right next to his room at Parliament. As for Özel, he made his dislike of Kılıçdaroğlu evident in moments captured by cameras when both men attended the funeral of a former lawmaker last week. Kılıçdaroğlu shook Özel’s hand during the funeral, almost without stopping to say hi, while Özel was captured on camera turning his face away and grimacing as Kılıçdaroğlu extended his hand.
Iraq is coordinating closely with Türkiye to remove the PKK terrorist organization from its territory, a government spokesperson said, pledging that Iraqi soil would never be used to threaten neighboring countries.
Iraqi government spokesperson Haider Abboudi told the country’s official INA news agency that Baghdad was maintaining high-level coordination with Ankara to resolve the PKK issue and ensure the terrorist group’s removal from Iraq.
Abboudi stressed that Iraq would not allow its territory to serve as a base for threats against neighboring states, dismissing allegations that Yemen’s Houthi movement maintains headquarters in the country.
He also said Baghdad was working closely with Tehran to address the presence of armed Iranian Kurdish groups in Iraq, with the two countries establishing a joint committee to coordinate efforts.
Addressing bilateral trade with Iran, Abboudi said the Sheib border crossing was not yet technically ready for operations, but commercial exchanges continued through other crossings.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the European Union, has maintained a presence in northern Iraq for decades, using the mountainous region as a base for attacks against Türkiye.
One of the issues discussed at a meeting of the Central Decision and Administration Board (MKYK) of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Ankara on Tuesday was local governance reform. The party has nearly finalized its work on the reforms, media outlets reported, amid a wave of corruption investigations targeting municipalities across the country.
The reforms include bringing discipline to municipalities’ financial structures, strengthening inspection mechanisms and cutting red tape that leads to overlapping authorities in municipal governance. They will soon be submitted to Parliament as part of a draft bill.
AK Party sources told reporters that Tuesday’s meeting focused on the impact of allegations of bribery, corruption and tender-rigging in investigations into municipalities, particularly those run by opposition parties, on municipal services.
The reforms will also focus on regulations governing construction permits and zoning. In many corruption cases involving municipal officials, including mayors, suspects are accused of issuing construction permits in violation of regulations in exchange for bribes or altering zoning plans to pave the way for commercial construction in areas that should otherwise be allocated for public use.
New Party (YP) will stay new, so to speak, as the Constitutional Court dismissed a case on Wednesday for the annulment of the name of the main opposition party.
In September, the court gave YP one month to present a defense in the lawsuit originally filed by Innovation Party (“Yenilik Partisi”), also abbreviated as YP. The smaller party requested a name change for the New Party, citing concerns that the name of the party founded last July may cause confusion among voters. The case was brought before the Constitutional Court by the General Prosecution Office, which handles cases related to political parties’ affairs. The Constitutional Court then asked the New Party to present its defense, which was done earlier this month. YP has claimed that the name would not impact the electorate’s choice, as they were aware of the distinction between parties, both in terms of the unabbreviated names of parties and their logos.
The Innovation Party was founded by former Ambassador Öztürk Yılmaz in 2020. Yılmaz served as a lawmaker with the Republican People’s Party (CHP) between 2015 and 2018, before Özgür Özel became CHP chair. Özel was forced out of office last May when a court ruled that his tenure should be nullified over allegations of vote-buying in a 2023 intraparty election. Özel initially planned to fight the verdict through an appeal process but later declared the founding of the New Party with the participation of dozens of lawmakers from CHP, now making it the main opposition party in Parliament.
Türkiye’s 2019 maritime boundary agreement with Libya is legally and politically legitimate and not open to debate, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Wednesday, hailing its acceptance by Libya’s House of Representatives as a major diplomatic victory for Ankara.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) during a visit to Brussels, Fidan said the development vindicated Türkiye’s longstanding position on the agreement, which defines maritime jurisdiction areas between the two Mediterranean countries.
“This is an entirely legitimate agreement, both legally and politically. There is no need to debate it,” Fidan said, dismissing objections from countries opposed to the deal.
Fidan described the Libyan parliament’s move as a diplomatic achievement under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership, emphasizing that the agreement promotes regional stability and mutually beneficial cooperation.
He said Ankara had considered the memorandum valid since its signing in 2019, noting that Turkish legal experts viewed the Libyan legislature’s latest decision as an act of acceptance rather than formal ratification.
“We know why certain countries object. Some oppose it because they feel compelled to, while others have genuine strategic concerns,” he said.
Fidan stressed that Libya’s trust in Türkiye and the agreement’s contribution to stability in the Eastern Mediterranean were particularly significant.
“Our goal is to bring stability, peace and prosperity to the Mediterranean, just as we seek to do everywhere else,” he added.
During his Brussels visit, Fidan also held talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, discussing Türkiye-EU relations, regional security and the Russia-Ukraine war.
He also joined Türkiye’s justice and interior ministers for talks with their Belgian counterparts aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation.
Fidan called for sustained engagement with the EU to overcome longstanding obstacles in relations, including issues surrounding Türkiye’s candidate status.
The text of the agreement on the Mecca Defense Alliance was presented to the Parliament on Tuesday for ratification. If the text, sent by the Foreign Ministry, is approved, it will strengthen the legal basis for the alliance formed by Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Authorities have earlier announced that the issue would be brought before Parliament as the opposition parties urged the government to seek their approval first to implement the requirements of the alliance.
The agreement the alliance is based upon says an attack on one party to the agreement will be deemed as an attack on all. This clause has been repeatedly highlighted as the Houthis in Yemen stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia within weeks of the signing of the defense agreement in Saudi Arabia.
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, who is in Kyrgyzstan at the moment, will submit the agreement to Parliament’s Foreign Aaffairs Commission after returning to Türkiye, two Turkish sources told Reuters.
A significant part of the debate surrounding the agreement concerns the scope of the military support Türkiye could provide to Saudi Arabia. At the alliance meeting held in Riyadh on Oct. 5, it was agreed that preparations would be made to deploy the military forces and capabilities agreed upon to Saudi Arabia.
Sources from the Turkish National Defense Ministry said the process would be carried out in accordance with the Constitution and relevant legislation. They also noted that the agreement must be approved by Parliament and that the necessary authorizations for deploying the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) abroad must be completed. With the submission of the bill to Parliament, the process has now been placed on the legislative agenda. The bill’s progress will involve referral to the relevant parliamentary commission and the General Assembly, the decision on approving the agreement, and any related military authorization procedures.
Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan affirmed defense assistance to Saudi Arabia but ruled out active participation of troops in the raging conflict between the Houthis and Saudis. “This is a defense pact, not a pact of offense; Türkiye won’t send troops to another country for attacking another,” he said at a news conference in Ankara.
He also noted that the agreement on the alliance would soon be sent to Parliament for ratification. “We are forming a defense cooperation with Saudi Arabia. We are discussing what type of defense measures are needed through our military delegations, and how Pakistan can contribute. Saudi Arabia already has a major military infrastructure; they have a high amount of weapons, munitions and defense elements accumulated over the years,” Fidan said.
The Sabah newspaper has earlier reported that Türkiye would provide low- and medium-altitude aerial defense systems to Saudi Arabia along with assistance in drone technologies and electronic warfare. The newspaper also reported that Saudi Arabia was working on setting up a base for Türkiye. A Foreign Ministry official told Daily Sabah that the Saudi side conveyed “some expectations” to Türkiye and they would examine those. The move is the most concrete step since the agreement was signed in August by top officials of Türkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to showcase the impact of the alliance in the broader region.
Commenting on the new parliamentary process, Burhanettin Duran, head of the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Directorate, said the move was an important stage in the institutionalization of strategic cooperation between three brotherly countries. In a social media post on Tuesday, Duran said the strategic partnership aimed to strengthen collective deterrence, enhancing joint capabilities in defense, and safeguarding security and stability in the region. “(The agreement), which is based on regional countries’ responsibility to tackle regional issues, is a display of the joint will prioritizing security and solidarity,” he said.
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