Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called for stronger economic, cultural, and scientific cooperation among Turkic-speaking nations at the 8th Summit of Heads of State and Government of Turkish-Speaking Countries, held in Antalya in November 2006.
Nazarbayev announced that Kazakhstan had launched its first satellite that year and planned a second launch in 2008, and said his country was open to joint space research with other Turkic states. He also outlined plans to open a container shipping corridor between Almaty and Istanbul, reviving historic Silk Road trade links, and confirmed that Kazakh oil would reach Türkiye and Western markets via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Addressing a pattern of unimplemented summit decisions, Nazarbayev proposed creating an ombudsman committee drawing on political, civic, and cultural figures from across the Turkic world, and nominated former Turkish President Süleyman Demirel to lead it.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev also spoke at the summit, stressing political dialogue and the preservation of shared history and culture. Uzbekistan was absent from the gathering.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in November 2006, in its own words.