By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Turkey's Yeni Shafak daily has described the Organization of Turkic States (former Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States -Turkic Council) as a significant potential that Russia, Iran, and China are closely watching.

The 8th Turkic Council Summit held in Istanbul on November 12 once again brought the great potential created by Turkic-speaking countries to the agenda by opening countless opportunities for collaboration, the newspaper said.

During the summit, it was also decided to change the name of the Turkic Council to the Organization of Turkic States.

Hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also took over the term presidency of the council, the summit ended after the publication of the 121-item final declaration.

The declaration, which was written in the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Uzbek, Azerbaijani and Turkish languages, emphasized the growth of cooperation and solidarity among the Turkic-speaking countries.

The participation of Hungary and Turkmenistan as observers at the summit was considered important in terms of increasing the organization's effectiveness in Europe and Asia.

The Organization of Turkic States, consisting of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, is also carefully watched by Russia.

In Asia, which is one of the critical regions of the Russian foreign policy, the formation of unity among the Turkic-speaking countries leads Moscow to closely follow the developments.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had shown his country's attention to this issue with his earlier statement saying that Russia can also join the council.

Both Iran and China are very interested in the fact that the Organization of Turkic States has a unanimous objective and strategies.

Iran, which surprised everyone by supporting Armenia in the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020, is making great efforts to prevent the Turkic world from forming a monolithic whole.

One of the biggest concerns of Iran's foreign policy is that Turkey and other Turkic-speaking countries create a common political and economic structure, just like the European Union. Likewise, China sees such a possibility as an obstacle to its own hegemony.

Iran is making great efforts so that the Turkic world does not form a monolithic whole. China, on the other hand, sees the possibility of the Turkic world acting together as an obstacle to its own hegemony.