BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 20. Kyrgyzstan has taken over the chairmanship of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States (TURKPA) from Kazakhstan as the Assembly’s latest meetings opened in Bishkek on October 20, the press service of the Jogorku Kenesh (Kyrgyzstan’s parliament) said.
The meetings are being held at the Yrys-Ordo congress hall. Parliament leaders first gathered for a session of the Assembly’s Council, where the chairmanship was formally handed over. Aibek Dadebay, chairman of Kazakhstan’s Kurultai, passed the ceremonial gavel to Marlen Mamataliev, chairman of the Jogorku Kenesh.
Marlen Mamataliev then chaired the rest of the session and presented the priorities of the Kyrgyz chairmanship. He said parliamentary diplomacy plays a major role in strengthening ties between fraternal peoples. TURKPA now faces new tasks, he said, and cooperation should not be limited to celebrating shared historical and cultural closeness but should deliver concrete results that affect citizens’ everyday lives.
Among the priorities he named were joint work on legislation for digital transformation and artificial intelligence, stronger mechanisms for expanding transport and economic links, greater involvement of young people in parliamentary processes and public life, and the development of education, science, culture and humanitarian ties as a separate track of parliamentary diplomacy.
Marlen Mamataliev also said geopolitical and economic shifts are accelerating while transport corridors and energy and food security are growing in importance. In these conditions, he said, cooperation among Turkic states based on mutual trust and shared interests is necessary.
During its chairmanship, Kyrgyzstan will also pay particular attention to interaction between standing committees, cooperation among young lawmakers and women parliamentarians, and ties between member parliaments and expert communities, he added.
Leaders of other member parliaments then spoke and offered their own proposals for deepening cooperation. Issues on the agenda of the 15th plenary session were also discussed.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Sahiba Gafarova and Numan Kurtulmuş, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, attended the Council session.
