At Turkic summit, Erdoğan urges diplomacy over Iran and backs a Palestinian state

Opening the 13th summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said rising tensions with Iran should be resolved through diplomacy rather than weapons and called on Turkic states to do more for Gaza and a Palestinian state.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened the 13th summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Ankara on Friday with a call to settle the renewed tensions over Iran through diplomacy, as Türkiye prepared to take over the group's rotating chairmanship from Azerbaijan.

Erdoğan welcomed Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and delegations from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus at the Beştepe presidential complex, where the leaders posed for a family photo before the session.

'Diplomacy, not weapons'

Erdoğan said conflicts in the region bring no gain to any side and weigh heavily on the global economy, trade and energy markets. "We hope that the tension with Iran, which has risen again recently, will be resolved through diplomacy instead of weapons," he said.

Calling the Palestinian issue "our bleeding wound," he urged Turkic states to do more for a just solution, to help get humanitarian aid into Gaza and to start its reconstruction as soon as possible, and to keep backing an independent, sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Middle Corridor and a joint satellite

Erdoğan described the Trans-Caspian East-West Middle Corridor, the trade route linking China and Europe through Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus and Türkiye, as "a strategic line that will shape the trade of tomorrow." He said cybersecurity is as vital as land, air and sea security and called for the swift signing of a memorandum on cybersecurity cooperation.

He also pressed for faster work on a joint satellite project, proposed bringing member states' markets together on a common digital trade platform and asked all members to contribute to a large Turkic language model covering the Oghuz, Kipchak and Karluk language groups.

A call to Turkmenistan

"In the family photo of the Turkic world, there is no room for division or discord," Erdoğan said, adding that he hoped to see Turkmenistan, currently an observer, become a full member "as soon as possible" under President Serdar Berdimuhamedov. He also said he expected the organization to expand its contacts with Northern Cyprus.

The summit, held under the theme "Turkic Century: Unity in Language, Thought and Action," brings together Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan as members, with Hungary, Turkmenistan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as observers. On Thursday evening, Erdoğan hosted the leaders at a Republic Day dinner, where he received a phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump.

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At Turkic summit, Erdoğan urges diplomacy over Iran and backs a Palestinian state