Leaders of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) countries at an extraordinary summit in Ankara on Thursday intend to express solidarity with Turkey in connection with the devastating earthquakes that struck its southeast in February and also discuss the formation of a civil protection mechanism against natural disasters, the organization's secretariat told TASS.
The leaders of the OTS countries will also discuss the Turkic Investment Fund. Secretary-General of the organization Kubanychbek Omuraliev did not rule out the possibility of adopting a joint declaration as a result of the summit.
The meeting will be chaired by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. Its agenda is "Natural disasters: emergency management and humanitarian assistance." The summit will be preceded by a meeting of the OTS foreign ministers.
7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes occurred on February 6 in Kahramanmaras province in southeastern Turkey. Earth tremors, followed by thousands of aftershocks, were felt in 11 provinces of the republic and neighboring countries, of which Syria was the most affected. According to UN forecasts, the damage from the natural disaster could reach $100 billion. More than 48 thousand people were killed in Turkey.
The Organization of Turkic States was established in 2009 as the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council). It got its current name in November 2021 at a summit in Istanbul. The organization includes Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan, with Turkmenistan and Hungary participating as observers. The internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has also been invited to the upcoming summit as an observer.
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Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Creative Commons 3.0
Based on materials from TASS