Alwaght-
the Turkey president, Erdogan,
along with 200 Turkish merchants, in his 3-day journey to Kazakhstan to participate in the second
meeting of the Turkey-Kazakhstan High
Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC). Erdogan in his tour met his Kazakh
counterpart and exchanged views about development of bilateral cooperation in
industrial, investment, transportation, cultural, regional and international
areas. His entourages were ministers of foreign, defense, economy, agriculture,
energy, transportation, culture and tourism.
Nazarbayev described Kazakhstan-Turkey relations friendly and
brotherly and the cooperation level of Astana-Ankara as excellent. He also
announced that Erdogan’s visit
to Astana opens a new page in Turkey- Kazakhstan relations. As he said, Kazakhs
respect Turkey so much because it was the first country to recognize the
independence of Kazakhstan.
Erdogan’s
visit to Kazakhstan, which has Turkish roots,
is a symbolic action. Turkey is one of Kazakhstan’s closest and most reliable
political and economic partners. As Nazarbayev said, there are more than 1600
Turkish firms in Kazakhstan now and Turkish merchants play an important role in
construction of Astana, the new capital city of Kazakhstan. Total volume of
Turkish firms’ contraction amounts to 20 billion USD and 14 investment projects
worth 1.5 Billion USD are going to be conducted. Moreover, cooperation for
fulfilling 25 new industrial projects is recommended to Turkey.
Erdogan
recognized Kazakhstan not only a friendly and
brotherly country but also a strategic partner. He portrayed Nazarbayev’s visit
to Turkey in 2009 a historic event in which the strategic agreement between two
countries was signed. Expressing his delight with the development of the
countries relations, Erdogan announced that from 2009, the Turkey-Kazakhstan
relations have been entered a strategic phase and by forming the HLSCC in 2012,
condition for deeper ties were provided.
In
Erdogan’s viewpoint, the two countries have a lot of capacities for development
of relations and Kazakhstan
plays an important role in connecting the central Asian
countries to international markets through the Caspian Sea. According to
Erdogan the agreement inked between two countries will help to increase the
region’s welfare.
Turkey
supports non-permanent membership of Kazakhstan
in NU
Security Council for 2017-2018.
Describing
Kazakhstan's economic programs as worthy of appreciation,
turkish side proposed cooperation with Kazakhstan
in two economic programs named “strategic program 2050” and “economic program
of Kazakhstan”.
The Caspian Corridor project will form the most important part of
Kazakhstan's economic program. Nazarbayev
invited the Turkish employers to participate in 25 projects of Expo 2017 hosted
by Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan aims to become the 30th biggest economy of
the world in 2050 and is going to produce 265 new industrial goods.
Turkish
firms have invested 2 billion USD in Kazakhstan
so far, making more than 15000 jobs. The Turkish contracting firms have signed
more than 400 projects worth 20 billion USD in Kazakhstan.
During this visit updating joint action plan of the two parties
which was signed in 2012, has been inked. The joint action plan includes 19 projects
worth 800 million USD such as producing building materials and manufacturing
military and commercial ship.
During
past ten years, Turkey has invested more than 1.8 billion USD in Kazakhstan and now the parties follow conducting 35 joint projects
worth 3.5 billion USD. Making industrial Turkish-Kazakh zones in
provinces of Almaty, west and south Kazakhstan
is under the agenda of joint cooperation.
Visiting
the University of Professor Ahmad Yasavi in the city of Turkestan, Erdogan received
the honorary doctorate. At this ceremony, Erdogan pointed out his country’s
positions about Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Libya Afghanistan and Myanmar
and emphasized on Turkey’s attempts and initiatives to form an international system based on peace, calmness, welfare and
security. He criticized UN security
council saying that “security council that just observes the massacre of 300000
Syrians, how can promise a safe future for millions of people? An international
system which supports a dictator who seized the power by overthrowing an
elected president, how can promise a free future for humanity”. He also claimed
that “number of Syrians and Iraqi refuges has reached to 2 million and UN has just
helped 250 million. Turkey has paid 5.5 million for refuges so far”.
Erdogan
went on saying that “ISIS continues to poison the space of Islam
world. We are concern about Libya's future since it
is governed by two rival governments from August 2014. Egyptian government
which came to the power after a coup refuses
to return back to democracy and sentences people to jail”. “Clashes in Yemen are going to bipolarize the region,
and regional tensions are increasing due to Israeli politicians’ actions. At a
time when the world is changing fast and security issues and common future are
going to be more complicated an appropriate appraisal is of great importance
and international agencies should cooperate with each other.”
Presenting
in work assembly of Turkey-Kazakhstan in Astana, he severely criticized
the recent European parliament verdict on considering the Armenians’ killing in
1915 as genocide and calling on Turkey to
recognize it. During this visit, the mosque and complex of “Khawaja Ahmad Yasavi”, constructed by
Turkey’s religious and endowments affairs organization, was inaugurated. A joint
statement was signed by the parties about the results of HLSCC and protocol of conducting economic joint program of “new
cooperation”. It was the first visit of Erdogan to Kazakhstan
after presidential election of Turkey in August, 2014.
