Flag of the Turkic Council
Ok so when most Americans hear Turkey they think first of the Thanksgiving Day bird and maybe secondly the country in the Middle East. The American elementary and secondary education system spends little time on world history and when we do study world history it is usually limited to European history. We spend very little time on Mid-Eastern or Asian History, maybe we touch on China and the Mongols and the Ottoman Empire, but little else.
Today, when I was reviewing events that happened on today’s date I came to 2009 when the presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey sign the Nakhchivan Agreement on the Establishment of Turkic Council. My first reaction was huh?? I had never thought much of the former Soviet Republics of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan having a tie to Turkey but….
For centuries, Turks shaped global history in their own particular way. They built and ruled numerous empires and states in the vast area stretching from Europe to India and from the Pacific to Egypt and Maghreb. Today, after almost three hundred years of decline and hardship, Turkic States, conscious of their common roots and identity, have entered a period of close cooperation, building stronger and sounder relations, and designing their common future together. The most important achievement of Turkic cooperation, as well as an indispensable prerequisite for its future development, is the establishment of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States or, simply, Turkic Council. Turkic Council is an intergovernmental organization whose overarching aim is promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic States. Read More
The Nakhchivan Agreement sets out the main purposes and tasks of the Organization as follows:
- Strengthening mutual confidence and friendship among the Parties;
- Developing common positions on foreign policy issues;
- Coordinating actions to combat international terrorism, separatism, extremism and cross-border crimes;
- Promoting effective regional and bilateral cooperation in all areas of common interest;
- Creating favorable conditions for trade and investment;
- Aiming for comprehensive and balanced economic growth, social and cultural development;
- Expanding interaction in the fields of science, technology, education, health, culture, sports and tourism;
- Encouraging interaction of mass media and other means of communication;
- Promoting exchange of relevant legal information and enhancing legal cooperation.
Currently, the member states are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan the two other Turik countries of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are possible future members of the Turkic Council. So let’s see what the Turkic Council looks like on a map
Click on Map to Enlarge
From the map you can see the countries form a path across Asia from Turkey to China and Mongolia. Today these countries act as a buffer between Russia and a very volatile part of the world that includes Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan and the prosperity of the Turkic Council is certainly in the best interest of the United States!!
From reading all of this I think I’d like to read more about the Turks and their various empires!!
