International Organization of Turkic Culture

The International Organization of Turkic Culture^[a] or TÜRKSOY is an international cultural organization of countries with Turkic populations, speaking languages belonging to the Turkic language family.

International Organization of Turkic Culture Uluslararası Türk Kültürü Teşkilatı Международная организация тюркской культуры
Flag
Sovereign (green) and other members (cyan) of Türksoy
Headquarters	Ankara, Turkey[1]
Working languages	English Russian Turkish
Members[2]	6 member states 8 observer states
Leaders
• General Secretary	Sultan Raev[3]
Establishment	1993
Website www.turksoy.org

The General Secretary of Türksoy is Sultan Raev, the former Minister of Culture of Kyrgyzstan and deputy General Secretary of Organization of Turkic States. Türksoy has its headquarters in Ankara, Turkey.

Name

TÜRKSOY was initially established as the Common Administration of Turkic Culture and Arts (Turkish: Türk Kültür ve Sanatları Ortak Yönetimi), and was later on renamed as International Organization of Turkic Culture. Its acronym nevertheless remained the same.^[1]

History

The organization has its roots in meetings during 1992 in Baku and Istanbul, where the ministers of culture from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan declared their commitment to cooperate in a joint cultural framework. Türksoy was subsequently established by an agreement signed on 12 July 1993 in Almaty.^[4]

In 1996, an official cooperation between Türksoy and UNESCO was established, involving mutual consultations and reciprocal representation.^[5]

Since its establishment, the Turkic Council has acted as an umbrella organization for Türksoy and a number of related organizations.^[6]

Member and observer states

As of 2022, Türksoy has six founding and 8 observer members.^[2]

Türksoy Headquarters, Ankara

Members

Member state	Official language(s)	Accession date	Area (km2)	Demographics
Azerbaijan[7]	Azerbaijani[7]	1993[7]	86,600[7]	91% Azerbaijanis, 3% Lezgins, 2% Russians, 1,5% Armenians, and others[7]
Kazakhstan[8]	Kazakh, Russian[8]	1993[8]	2,724,900[8]	64% Kazakhs, 24% Russians, and others[8]
Kyrgyzstan[9]	Kyrgyz, Russian[9]	1993[9]	199,951[9]	77% Kyrgyz, 15% Uzbeks, 5% Russians, and others[9]
Turkey[10]	Turkish[10]	1993[10]	783,562[10]	70–75% Turks, 19% Kurds and 6–11% others[10]
Turkmenistan[11]	Turkmen[11]	1993[11]	488,100[11]	85% Turkmens, 5% Uzbeks, 4% Russians, and others[11]
Uzbekistan[12]	Uzbek[12]	1993[12]	448,924[12]	80% Uzbeks, 5% Russians, 5% Tajiks, and others[12]

Observers

Observer state	Official language(s)	Accession date	Area (km2)	Demographics
Bashkortostan (Russian Federation)[13]	Bashkir, Russian[13]	1993[13]	143,600[13]	29% Bashkirs, 36% Russians, 24% Tatars, and others[13]
Northern Cyprus (de facto)[14]	Turkish[14]	1993[14]	3,335[14]	98% Turks, 0,5% Greeks, and others[14]
Tatarstan (Russian Federation)[15]	Tatar, Russian[15]	1993[15]	67,836[15]	52% Tatars, 39% Russians, and others[15]
Khakassia (Russian Federation)[16]	Khakas, Russian[16]	1996[16]	61,900[16]	13% Khakas, 79% Russians, and others[16]
Tuva (Russian Federation)[17]	Tuvan, Russian[17]	1996[17]	170,500[17]	64% Tuvans, 32% Russians, and others[17]
Găgăuzia (Moldova)[18]	Gagauz, Romanian, Russian[18]	1999[18]	1,832[18]	82% Gagauz, 7,8% Moldovans, 4,9% Bulgarians, and others[18]
Altai (Russian Federation)[19]	Altay, Russian[19]	2003[19]	206,168[19]	31% Altaians, 61,4% Russians, Kazakhs and others[19]
Yakutia (Russian Federation)[20]	Yakut, Russian[20]	2003[20]	3,062,100[20]	40% Yakuts, 60% Russians, Tatars and others[20]

Activities

Since its establishment, Türksoy has been "carrying out activities to strengthen the ties of brotherhood and solidarity among Turkic peoples, transmit the common Turkic culture to future generations and introduce it to the world."^[21]

Activities and events include:

• Gatherings of artists, photographers, painters, opera singers, poets, journalists, theatre, dance and music ensembles of the Turkic World
• Monthly journal published in three languages
• Publishing works written in various Turkic languages and dialects
• Commemoration of artists, authors, poets and scholars in recognition of their valuable contribution to Turkic culture
• Symposia and conferences covering topics on the common history, language, culture and art of Turkic peoples
• Nevruz Day celebrations including concerts and events held in the UNESCO Headquarters in 2010, the United Nations General Assembly Hall in 2011, and various other countries including Germany, Austria, and the United Kingdom.^[22]

Cultural Capital of the Turkic World

Main article: Culture and Arts Capital of the Turkic World

Every year, Türksoy selects one city in the Turkic world to be the "Cultural Capital of the Turkic World". The chosen city hosts a number of events to celebrate Turkic culture.^[23][21]

The cities that have been awarded this title are:

• 2012: Astana, Kazakhstan
• 2013: Eskişehir, Turkey
• 2014: Kazan, Tatarstan
• 2015: Merv, Turkmenistan
• 2016: Shaki, Azerbaijan^[23]
• 2017: Turkistan, Kazakhstan
• 2018: Kastamonu, Turkey^[24]
• 2019: Osh, Kyrgyzstan
• 2020: Khiva, Uzbekistan^[25]
• 2022: Bursa, Turkey^[26]
• 2023: Shusha, Azerbaijan^[27]
• 2024: Anau, Turkmenistan^[28]
• 2025: Aktau, Kazakhstan^[29]

Commemorative years

Since 2010, Türksoy has selected at least one figure from Turkic culture every year to dedicate their activities to.

Year	Person	Description
2010	Zeki Velidi Togan[30]	Bashkir historian, 120th anniversary of his birth
2011	Ğabdulla Tuqay[31]	Tatar poet, 125th anniversary of his birth
2012	Nikolai Katanov[32]	Khakas Turkologist, 150th anniversary of his birth
	Mirza Fatali Akhundov[33]	Azerbaijani writer, 200th anniversary of his birth
2013	Mukan Tulebaev [tr][34]	Kazakh musician, 100th anniversary of his birth
2014[35]	Magtymguly Pyragy	Turkmen poet
	Toktogul Satylganov	Kyrgyz poet
2015[36]	Haldun Taner	Turkish writer, 100th anniversary of his birth
	Semyon Kadyshev	Khakas dastan writer, 130th anniversary of his birth
2016	Yūsuf Balasaguni[37]	Turkic philosopher and poet, 1000th anniversary of his birth
2017	Molla Panah Vagif[38]	Azerbaijani poet, 300th anniversary of his birth
2018[39]	Gara Garayev	Azerbaijani composer, 100th anniversary of his birth
	Magzhan Zhumabayev	Kazakh poet, 125th anniversary of his birth
	Chinghiz Aitmatov	Kyrgyz writer, 90th anniversary of his birth
2019[40]	Imadaddin Nasimi	Azerbaijani poet, 650th anniversary of his birth
	Âşık Veysel	Turkish folk singer, 125th anniversary of his birth
2020	Abai Qunanbaiuly[41]	Kazakh poet and intellectual, 175th anniversary of his birth
2021[42]	Yunus Emre	Turkish Sufi and poet, 700th anniversary of his death
	Nizami Ganjavi	Persian poet, 880th anniversary of his birth
2022[26]	Toktobolot Abdumomunov [ru]	Kyrgyz writer, 100th anniversary of his birth
	Fikret Amirov	Azerbaijani composer, 100th anniversary of his birth
	Süleyman Çelebi	Turkish sufi, 600th anniversary of his death
2023[43]	Temirbek Jürgenov [az]	Kazakh poet, 125th anniversary of his birth
	Baken Kydykeyeva	Kyrgyz actress, 100th anniversary of her birth
	Mehmet Akif Ersoy	Turkish poet, 150th anniversary of his birth
	Al-Biruni	Persian scientist born in modern-day Uzbekistan, 1050th anniversary of his birth
	İsmet Güney	Northern Cypriot painter, 100th anniversary of his birth
2024[43]	Magtymguly Pyragy	Turkmen poet and philosopher, 300th anniversary of his birth (2nd commemoration)
2025[29]	Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh	Azerbaijani poet, 100th anniversary of his birth
	Nurgisa Atabayoğlu Tilendiyev [kk]	Kazakh conductor and composer, 100th anniversary of his birth
	Atai Ogonbaev [ky]	Kyrgyz composer, 125th anniversary of his birth
	Münir Nurettin Selçuk	Turkish composer, 125th anniversary of his birth
	Aşık Kenzi	Northern Cypriot folk singer, 230th anniversary of his birth
2026[44]	Ziya Gökalp	Turkish writer, 150th anniversary of his birth

Funding

Türksoy is funded by contributions paid by individual member states, local governments, universities and NGOs.^[1]

Related organizations

The Organization of Turkic States, the Turkic Academy and the Foundation of Turkic Culture and Heritage are organizations which TÜRKSOY works in coordination with. TÜRKSOY also carries out cooperation activities with the UNESCO, the ISESCO and the International Foundation for the Humanitarian Cooperation (IFESCCO) of the Commonwealth of Independent States.^[1]

As part of the XV International Tashkent Film Festival "Pearl of the Silk Road", the "World Turkic Filmmakers Forum" was held, at which it was decided to create the Union of Cinematographers of the Turkic World. The head of the Cinematography Agency of the Ministry of Culture of Uzbekistan, Firdavs Abdukhalikov, was elected the chairman of the organization.^[45]

List of secretaries-general

No.	Name	Country of origin	Took office	Left office
1	Polad Bülbüloğlu[46]	Azerbaijan	1994	2008
2	Düsen Kaseinov [tr][47]	Kazakhstan	29 May 2008	31 March 2022
3	Sultan Raev [tr][27]	Kyrgyzstan	31 March 2022	incumbent

Leaders of member states

• 
  Republic of Azerbaijan
  Ilham Aliyev
  President of Azerbaijan
• 
  Republic of Kazakhstan
  Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
  President of Kazakhstan
• 
  Kyrgyz Republic
  Sadyr Japarov
  President of Kyrgyzstan
• 
  Republic of Turkey
  Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
  President of Turkey
• 
  Turkmenistan
  Serdar Berdimuhamedow
  President of Turkmenistan
• 
  Republic of Uzbekistan
  Shavkat Mirziyoyev
  President of Uzbekistan