On May 2, 2025, the 17th Meeting of the Council of Elders of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) was held in the city of Girne, in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
The meeting gathered OTS Secretary General Kubanychbek Omuraliev, Chairman of the Council of Elders Binali Yıldırım, President of the Turkic Academy Shahin Mustafayev, President of the Turkish Linguistic Society Osman Mert, President of the Turkish Historical Society Yuksel Ozgen, members of the Council of Elders from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan, as well as representatives of relevant institutions and academic organizations from the OTS member states.
Special attention during the meeting was given to two major initiatives coordinated by the Turkic Academy: the development of a Common Turkic Alphabet and the compilation of the academic work The History of Turkic States.
Addressing the participants, President of the Academy, Prof. Dr. Shahin Mustafayev shared the latest developments regarding the Common Turkic Alphabet project.
He noted that members of the Commission on the Common Alphabet of the Turkic World — officially appointed by the member and observer states of the OTS — had approved a unified Latin-based alphabet consisting of 34 letters that reflect the phonetic richness of all Turkic languages. The final version of the alphabet was adopted at the third meeting of the Commission held in Baku in September 2024.
President of the Academy also informed the gathering that, in line with the mandate given by the Heads of State at the OTS Summit in Bishkek in November 2024, the Turkic Academy had launched the active phase of the project to create a unified History of Turkic States.
The meeting agenda also included discussions on key priorities of the OTS in the political, economic, cultural, educational and transportation spheres, as well as initiatives aimed at deepening integration across the Turkic world.
