Politics & Diplomacy
Kremlin: Russia’s participation in the Organization of Turkic States would be “understandable and appropriate”, after Tokayev’s proposal in Ankara
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 2 that Russian participation in the Organization of Turkic States would be understandable and appropriate, responding to Kazakh President Tokayev’s proposal at the Ankara summit.
The Kremlin considers a Russian participation in the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) “entirely understandable and appropriate”. The spokesman of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, responded on Monday, November 2, to the proposal by Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who at the OTS summit in Ankara proposed that Russia join the organisation as a member or as an observer.
“Russia’s participation in the Organization of Turkic States would be understandable and appropriate. As far as I understand, there has been no official invitation, but the issue will certainly be on the agenda of our relations, including with Astana, with our friends in Astana,” Mr Peskov said. He explained that peoples who are historically of Turkic origin live in Russia, which makes cooperation with the OTS a natural choice. Mr Peskov insisted that the Russian Federation as a whole, and not individual Russian regions, should take part in the organisation.
Tokayev’s proposal at the Ankara summit
Mr Tokayev proposed that Russia take part in an “OTS+” format or acquire observer status, stressing in the same speech that the organisation must not become a military alliance. He raised the issue at the 13th OTS summit in Ankara, noting that Moscow has historically close ties with the Turkic world. The members of the organisation are Turkey, Azerbaijan and Central Asian states, among them Kazakhstan. Russia has not so far received an official invitation, as Mr Peskov himself said.
The Cyprus dimension
The self-declared regime in the occupied part of Cyprus, recognised only by Turkey and condemned by UN Security Council resolutions 541 and 550, takes part in the OTS as an observer, while the Declaration the leaders signed in Ankara adopted Turkey’s line on the Cyprus issue, a solution “based on the realities on the island”. On the margins of the summit Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received the Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman and told him that no solution would be lasting unless it protects the rights of Turkish Cypriots, as we reported in our report on the Erdoğan–Erhürman meeting and the OTS Declaration.
