Baku, November 16, AZERTAC “We continue our activities with enthusiasm and great effort for the implementation of future large-scale projects,” said President of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation Gunay Afandiyeva during her speech at the 9th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Turkic States held in the historic city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan."As you know, within the framework of the Summit, the chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States will be transferred to Uzbekistan. We wish success to Uzbekistan in fulfilling this honorable responsibility. We are confident that during this period, Uzbekistan will admirably handle this task by contributing to the development of cooperation in all spheres with brotherly Turkic states, as well as Turkic Cooperation Organizations including the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation.”Gunay Afandiyeva spoke about the activity of the organization she leads, which studies, protects, promotes and furthers the ancient cultural heritage of the Turkic people, and stated: “Although the Foundation is a young organization, since its inception, it has promoted various projects to strengthen cultural ties in the Turkic world, actively participated in the process of integration of the Turkic peoples through events, conferences, round tables, books published by it in different countries. This year, the organization's budget was approved and international staff was formed with the appointment of employees from member countries. As the Foundation, we continue our activities and efforts towards the implementation of future large-scale projects with enthusiasm, highly appreciating the important steps taken by the member states to support the activities of the organization.”Gunay Afandiyeva stated that the purpose of the projects implemented by the Foundation in Samarkand within the 9th Summit of the OTS is to contribute to this exceptional event: “We organized a symposium in Samarkand dedicated to the cooperation of Turkic states on the Great Silk Road. The “Seven Beauties” music group, created by the Foundation and consisting of female musicians from 7 Turkic countries, for the first time demonstrates the mysterious music of the Turkic world here.”Gunay Afandiyeva, giving information about the projects carried out by the organization during the year, noted: "As in every year, books, postage stamps and other publications, various events and conferences were held to promote the invaluable contributions of great thinkers, writers, and musicians of the Turkic world at an international level, including European countries such as Austria, Poland and Bulgaria. These numerous activities include the publication of an extensive study on the epic of “Manas”, as well as the celebration and promotion of Nizami Ganjavi, Yunus Emre, Zhambyl Zhabayev, Alisher Navai, Ömer Seyfettin, Miklós Radnóti, Fikret Amirov, many outstanding female poets of Azerbaijan who lived in the 12th-20th centuries, including Khurshidbanu Natavan, whose 150th birthday is celebrated this year.On the occasion of Fikret Amirov's 100th anniversary, the great composer's famous ballet "One Thousand and One Nights" was successfully staged under our auspices in Sofia. In Vienna, the culture of the Turkic World was presented to German-speaking readers in a series of events under the name "Literary Bridge Connecting the Turkic World.” In Warsaw, we were co-organizers of the Congress of Turkologists gathering scholars from various countries, after which the music of Turkic countries was heard.”Gunay Afandiyeva emphasized that among the main goals of the Foundation is the protection and promotion of the history, culture of minority peoples of Turkic ethnic origin, and pointed out: “In this direction, we have expanded our relations with Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. In the beginning of this year, with the participation of First Lady of Lithuania Diana Nausediene, an exhibition was held dedicated to Karaims in Lithuania – the smallest ethnic group in the country. Recently, representatives of Lithuanian Karaims arrived to participate in a number of events, presenting their unique heritage.”Commenting on the choice of Shusha as the Cultural Capital of the Turkic world in 2023, the President of the Foundation added: "In connection to this, we proposed the holding of “Days of Shusha” in this year’s Cultural Capital, the ancient Bursa. This event will act as the start of the new tradition of transferring the status of cultural capital from one city to another. The organization of these Days is planned by us for the end of the year.”"I hope that, as Turkic Cooperation Organizations, we will contribute to the expansion of relations between the Turkic states and bring the Turkic people closer together through our activities based on mutual cooperation," said Gunay Afandiyeva.At the end of the speech, the participants of the event were presented with a book of poems by the young Azerbaijani poet Farid Huseyn, published by the Foundation, dedicated to the Uzbek cities of Samarkand and Khiva.