Establishment 1993 | ||
 | ||
Members 6 sovereign member states8 non-sovereign observer states | ||
The International Organization of Turkic Culture (Turkish: Uluslararası Türk Kültürü Teşkilatı, TÜRKSOY) is an international cultural organization of countries with Turkic populations, speaking languages belonging to the Turkic language family. Other than being an abbreviation of the former official name "Türk Kültür ve Sanatları Ortak Yönetimi" - Joint Administration of Turkic Culture and Arts, "Türksoy" is a compound noun, in Turkish, made up of the words "Türk" (Turk/ic) and "soy" (ancestry).
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The General Secretary of TÜRKSOY is Duisen Kaseinov, former Minister of Culture of Kazakhstan. TÜRKSOY has its headquarters in Ankara, Turkey.
History
The organization has its roots in meetings during 1992 in Baku and Istanbul, where the ministers of culture from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan declared their commitment to cooperate in a joint cultural framework. TÜRKSOY was subsequently established by an agreement signed on July 12, 1993 in Almaty.
In 1996, an official cooperation between TÜRKSOY and UNESCO was established, involving mutual consultations and reciprocal representation.
It is announced that TÜRKSOY will be integrated into the Turkic Council, a geopolitical organization of Turkic countries established on November 3, 2009.
Members
As of 2016, TÜRKSOY has six sovereign member states and three non-sovereign observer states.
Past members
The five Russian federal subjects left TÜRKSOY after a Russian aircraft was shot down by Turkish forces in late 2015.
Activities
TURKSOY carries out activities to strengthen cultural ties between Turkic peoples. One of the main goals to transmit their common cultural heritage to future generations and promote it around the world.
Activities and events include;
Cultural Capital of the Turkic World
Every year, one city in the Turkic world is selected as the "Cultural Capital of the Turkic World". Within the framework of events to celebrate the Cultural Capital of the Turkic World, numerous cultural events are held, gathering artists, scholars and intellectuals, giving them the opportunity to exchange their experiences, as well as promoting the city in question internationally.
Recent cities that have been awarded this title are;
Funding
TURKSOY is funded by contributions paid by individual member states, local governments, universities and NGO's.