Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday that he is confident that Turkic world will leave its mark on this century.
"As long as we stand heart to heart, God willing, we are confident we will leave the Turkic world’s mark on this century," said Erdoğan, speaking at a joint press conference with his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Ankara.
Erdoğan said that over the past decade, Türkiye tripled bilateral trade with Uzbekistan. "I believe we will soon reach our new $5 billion target," he added.
With investments exceeding $5 billion, Turkish companies already rank among the top three investors in Uzbekistan, Erdoğan said, expressing hope to see even better levels.
“As Türkiye, we are determined to do our utmost to contribute to the prosperity of Uzbekistan and our ancestral homeland, Central Asia,” the president added.
Noting that they had just concluded the fourth meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council with Mirziyoyev, Erdoğan said he was pleased to host Mirziyoyev and his delegation in their “second home” on this occasion.
Erdoğan said this year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Treaty of Eternal Friendship and Cooperation signed in 1996, and that brotherly Uzbekistan, under Mirziyoyev’s resolute and strong leadership and with its state tradition, plays a pioneering role in regional integration in Central Asia.
He said they closely follow Uzbekistan’s steadily rising profile on the international stage, take pleasure in it, and sincerely support it.
He said they have not only strengthened solidarity between Türkiye and Uzbekistan but elevated it to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership, and the agreements exchanged set the roadmap for the period ahead.
The Turkish president said institutions of both countries are working together to achieve all shared political, economic, cultural, humanitarian and regional goals.
Recalling that the Joint Strategic Planning Group recently met under the co-chairmanship of the foreign ministers, Erdoğan said Ankara also hosted the first meeting of the 4+4 mechanism comprising the foreign, interior and defense ministers and the heads of intelligence agencies.
Erdoğan said Türkiye and Uzbekistan work in close cooperation within the Organization of Turkic States, and that Mirziyoyev made significant contributions to the declaration of Dec. 15 as World Turkic Language Family Day at UNESCO’s 43rd General Conference held in Samarkand last November.
He said they will move forward with concrete steps toward the goal of “unity in language, thought and action,” as pointed out by intellectual Ismail Gaspirali, whom the late great Uzbek poet Abdulhamid Suleyman Cholpan greeted with the words, “Our master who awakened us.”
Erdoğan also emphasized that Uzbekistan has taken a principled stance regarding Israel’s attacks on Gaza and other occupied Palestinian territories.
“At a time when our humanity is being tested, I once again sincerely congratulate my Uzbek brothers who courageously stand by the oppressed, in the person of the esteemed president,” he said. ”I also welcome my brother Mirziyoyev’s decision to establish a fund to provide social services for Palestinians in Uzbekistan.”
Unity in hardship between Türkiye and Uzbekistan
Stressing the deep bonds of solidarity between the two countries, Erdoğan acknowledged that Uzbekistan was among the first to aid Türkiye after the Feb. 6, 2023 earthquakes, demonstrating their unity in hardship.
Recalling that, at the extraordinary summit of the Organization of Turkic States in 2023, Feb. 6 was declared the “Day of Remembrance and Solidarity for Disaster Victims” upon Uzbekistan’s proposal, Erdoğan said Uzbekistan went further by undertaking the construction of 308 housing units within a project of 3,093 homes built in the earthquake-wrecked southeastern city Hatay.
Erdoğan said the Uzbek neighborhood symbolizes the enduring brotherhood between Türkiye and Uzbekistan, announcing upcoming ceremonies with Mirziyoyev to hand over homes to earthquake survivors and to break ground on an Uzbekistan-built school in Hatay and Istanbul.
