At the founding conference of the NGO Platform of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) member countries, Azər Allahverənov, a member of the Board of Directors of the Azerbaijan National NGO Forum and a Member of Parliament, was elected Secretary General of the platform.
Modern.az contacted Azər Allahverənov to obtain detailed information regarding the platform.
In a statement to our website, MP Azər Allahverənov stated that the emergence of such an institutional innovation among non-governmental organizations of OTS member countries is a demand of the day:
“This is a new structure. And generally, a very important decision was made for the Turkic world. Because, in the true sense of the word, the emergence of such an institutional innovation among the NGOs of the Organization of Turkic States member countries is a demand of the day. When we look at the various formats of the OTS, we can see that cooperation has gained wide momentum through approximately 34 platforms. Activities that will enhance the institutional development of the OTS, as well as its political and strategic importance, are being showcased through these platforms. Only at the NGO level were relations somewhat weak. However, bilateral and trilateral relations were quite numerous. There are numerous collaborations between Azerbaijani-Uzbek, Azerbaijani-Turkish, and Azerbaijani-Kazakh NGOs. Cooperation forums have been held. In fact, we have had two cooperation forums with Uzbekistan. The holding of Azerbaijani-Kazakhstan and Azerbaijani-Turkish forums is also planned in the near future”.
A. Allahverənov emphasized that the creation of a platform that will unite NGOs and the location of its secretariat in Baku is a historic event:
“The announcement of the decision in Nakhchivan doubles its significance. Because it was precisely in Nakhchivan in 2009 that the decision to establish the OTS was made. Consequently, this is a beginning through NGOs. And work is still being carried out on structures, coordination efforts, and other issues. It has been decided here that the secretariat will be located in Baku. The establishment and broad organization of the platform's activities will be determined by subsequent steps. Here, activities encompassing all Turkic states will be developed precisely through civil societies, their conceptual and improved establishment, the implementation of experience exchanges through relations, and the coordination of training and a sufficiently wide spectrum of activities will be organized. There are important components related to public diplomacy in the decisions adopted by the OTS, and the implementation of these components will be carried out directly through the platform. Consequently, the platform's action plan will be determined based on the decisions adopted by the OTS. The secretariat has designated contact persons for each country. The secretariat will organize its activities through these contact persons. We will be informed about this within 1 month. In the next stage, necessary steps will be taken regarding the drafting of the action plan and other related work. I should also mention that the current chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States belongs to Azerbaijan. For this reason, the Secretary General was specifically elected from Azerbaijan. In the future, when the chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States changes on a rotational basis, the Secretary General of the NGO platform will also be changed in the same manner. But what is important is that the secretariat of the Platform of Non-Governmental Organizations of the member states of the Organization of Turkic States will be located in Baku. I believe this is a process that will greatly impact the development of our NGOs. We wish this to be a beneficial and successful endeavor for our state and the Turkic world”.
It should be noted that on November 24, the solidarity forum of non-governmental organizations of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) member countries opened in Baku. The event concluded on November 26 in Nakhchivan. NGO representatives from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and Hungary participated in the event.
