The Turkologist spoke about the risks of the Organization of Turkic States for the Russian Federation

The member states of the Organization of Turkic States traditionally discuss a wide range of issues from cultural cooperation to deepening economic cooperation, Razil Guzaerov, a junior employee of the Department of the Middle and Post–Soviet East of the INION RAS, said in an interview with Izvestia.

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"The activities of the OTG are worrisome as a new integration platform that includes the states of the post-Soviet space, including the EAEU member states. Turkey is forming this institution to increase its influence on the region, and the member states can use the OTG to balance relations with other states," the expert explained.

According to the political scientist, at the same time, the lack of quick results in the activities of the OTG should not relax.

"There remains a need to study the institute's activities and develop measures to prevent its influence from increasing in the region," the expert believes.

According to him, this is not the first time that the leaders of the countries have raised a number of issues.

"The President of Azerbaijan calls for institutionalizing military cooperation, starting with joint military exercises; the President of Turkey traditionally focuses on linguistic issues, promoting the common Turkic alphabet and the model of the "Big Turkic Language," and the head of Kazakhstan suggests new areas of cooperation within the framework of the OTG, in particular, in the field of cybersecurity," the Turkologist noted.

According to the political scientist, on the one hand, such a list of topics and their diversity demonstrate the potential of the organization and its theoretical capabilities for creating close cooperation between member states. On the other hand, the organization is at the initial stage of its economic development.

"Discussions on the development of transport and logistics corridors, investment projects, and the activities of the OTG Investment Fund do not translate into real actions and practical implementation. And the level of intra—block trading remains around 7%," the expert believes.

The expert believes that the economic factor creates serious challenges for the functioning of the association.

"The leadership of the states periodically focuses its attention on this, but the lack of any actions demonstrates the inconsistency of the position on solving this problem. The OTG mostly concentrates its activities in the social and humanitarian sphere: uniform textbooks have been published, a common Turkic alphabet has been developed, various conferences, forums, etc. are being worked on," the analyst is sure.

In his opinion, the implementation of projects depends on the lack of funding and the lack of a common view of the processes.

On October 6-7, Azerbaijan hosted the XII Summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), which includes Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan, Hungary and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Ankara, are observers. The parties agreed to deepen military and defense cooperation. In particular, they plan to hold military exercises in Azerbaijan next year.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

A scimitar in the back: The Organization of Turkic States has conceived exercises against Russia

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