Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev participated in the summit, and Turkmenistan was represented by Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Hydyr Saparliyev, bringing together in total five Turkic countries. Uzbekistan did not participate in the summit.The Nakhchivan summit was a historic summit. A new international organization called the Turkic-speaking Countries Cooperation Council, or in short “Turkic Council,” was established during the summit.
The statute of the Turkic Council, which aims to institutionalize cooperation and solidarity between Turkic countries, was approved and ratified by the participating state leaders. The secretariat and subunits of the council were set up, and the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-speaking countries (TurkPA), which was set up under an agreement signed in last year's meeting of parliament speakers of Turkic-speaking countries in İstanbul, has been placed under the jurisdiction of the Turkic Council. Another organization that has been transferred to the Turkic Council is the Joint Administration of Turkic Culture and Arts (Türksoy), which has been organizing cultural activities in the Turkic world since 1993.
During the summit, it was agreed upon that the heads of state of Turkic republics would convene once a year on a regular basis and conduct an unofficial meeting each year. In other words, aside from bilateral visits and meetings, the leaders will have to come together at least twice each year from now on. Within the Turkic Council, a Foreign Ministers Council, a Senior Officials Council and a Wise Men Delegation of Turkic-speaking countries have also been set up. Leaders also agreed to open a Turkic academy in Kazakhstan. The General Secretariat of the Turkic Council will be located in İstanbul, and the headquarters of TurkPA will be located in Baku. New operations of the council will be arranged in other Turkic countries.
With the efforts that have been pursued over the last two years, the summit of Turkic-speaking countries' heads of state, which has been providing an opportunity for leaders to come together since 1992, is evolving into an institutionalized international organization.
The goal is to establish an institutional structure among Turkic countries similar to the cooperation achieved in the Arab League, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF), the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe and among Latin American countries. The summit held in Nakhchivan is the first step in institutionalizing relations between Turkic countries. It is for this reason that the Nakhchivan summit is a turning point for the Turkic world.
