Turkic Council summit in Baku: Erdogan's speech and a new member

Baku is hosting the seventh summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking states.

On October 14-15, heads and representatives of member countries of the Turkic Council are discussing mainly support for small and medium-sized businesses.  The council has also accepted Uzbekistan into the organization, and Erdogan took the opportunity to say that he did not intend to abandon the military operation in Syria.

At the current summit, a new country, Uzbekistan, was accepted by the Turkic Council.  Thus, there are five countries-members of this organization: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. 

Plus, Hungary was accepted as an observer country.

Next in line is Turkmenistan, which so far is not a member of the Council.

But it is especially interesting that this summit is the first foreign trip of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since sending troops into Syria, thereby outraging many in the global diplomatic community.

• Azerbaijan comes out in support of Turkish military operation in Syria

• Armenia condemns Turkey’s military invasion of Syria

In his speech at the summit, Erdogan criticized the European Union and the League of Arab States and said that the Turkic world suffered more than others from terror.

Regarding the so-called “Spring of Peace” operation which Turkey recently launched, Erdogan said: 

“We will not abandon the steps taken, whatever you say. Our only goal is to cleanse the region from PYD / YPG and IS [ed. which Turkey says are terrorist organizations]”. 

Erdogan ended his speech with the famous statement of the Azerbaijani ideologist of the struggle for independence Mammad Emin Rasulzade: “The flag once raised will never fall!” 

Also, this summit was the first “appearance” of the former president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, since he resigned.