BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 13. The announcement of the city of Shusha as the cultural capital of the Turkic world is a very important event not only for the ancient Turkic city, which was occupied for many years, but also for the entire Turkic world, Secretary General of the Organization of Turkic States Kubanychbek Omuraliev said, TurkicWorld reports.

Omuraliev made the remark at the opening ceremony of the "Year of Shusha – the cultural capital of the Turkic World – 2023" event.

Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan Adil Karimli, Special Representative of the President of Azerbaijan in the Shusha district Aydin Karimov, Secretary General of TURKSOY (International Organization of Turkic Culture) Sultan Raev, and Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia Polad Bulbuloghlu also spoke at the event.

Omuraliev noted that the "Cultural Capital of the Turkic World" initiative plays an important role in the preservation and promotion of Turkic culture, and the sphere of culture is the common identity of the Turkic peoples.

He also informed about the projects that the Organization of Turkic States will implement in Shusha during 2023 and the activities that will be implemented in the coming period.

On March 31, 2022, in the city of Bursa of Türkiye, by the decision of the Permanent Council of Ministers of Culture of the TURKSOY member countries, the city of Shusha, the ancient cradle of mugham art, was declared the "Cultural Capital of the Turkic World" for 2023.

The foundation of the "Cultural Capital of the Turkic World" project was laid in 2010 at the 10th Summit of the Heads of the Turkic Speaking States, held in Türkiye's Istanbul.

According to their common decision, every year one city of the Turkic world is declared as the "cultural capital".

Over the years, the cities of Astana (2012, Kazakhstan), Eskişehir (2013, Türkiye), Kazan (2014, Tatarstan – Russia), Merv (2015, Turkmenistan), Shaki (2016, Azerbaijan), Turkestan (2017, Kazakhstan), Kastamonu (2018, Turkey), Osh (2019, Kyrgyzstan), Khiva (2020, Uzbekistan) and Bursa (2022, Türkiye) have been declared the "cultural capital of the Turkic world".

Azerbaijan's Shusha is the 11th city of the Turkic world, which became the capital of the year of the Turkic world.