Turkey, Kazakhstan to increase cooperation in terror fight: Erdoğan

ASTANA

AA photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sept. 9 that Ankara and Astana would increase cooperation in fight against terror organizations, particularly the Gülen network, widely believed to have been behind last year’s failed coup attempt.

“As Turkey, we are carrying out our struggle with FETO (Fethullahist Terrorist Organization) not just for ourselves but also for the security of our friends and brothers. I want to thank the Elder (Nazarbayev) for his support in this process. God wiling, we will eliminate this gang which threatens the national security of both countries by working in cooperation. We will further increase our cooperation at the point of fighting against terror organizations such as DEASH (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), FETO and al-Qaeda in the coming period,” Erdoğan told a joint press meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana.

Erdoğan said Turkey and Kazakhstan established a strategic partnership in 2009, which turned into a corporate mechanism in 2012, the Turkey-Kazakhstan High Level Strategic Cooperation Council.  

Nazarbayev said: “We exchanged ideas about organizing the High Level Strategic Cooperation Council. We came to agreement on economic, commercial, and investment relations as well."  

He said Kazakhstan was a country that Turkey gives importance and priority to in terms of economic and commercial partnership, and that Turkey will host Nazarbayev next year for a new meeting.  

Erdoğan and Nazarbayev will also attend the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit on Sunday. About 70 committee members of 57 countries are expected to attend the summit.  

Nazarbayev stressed that Turkey was one of the closest and trustworthy political and economic partners of Kazakhstan and that high level meetings should be done more frequently.  

Nazarbayev said they contributed to finding a solution to the Syrian crisis by holding talks in Astana.  

“Turkey contributes to the talks as a guarantor. Violence in Syria had decreased as a result of the talks,” he said.  

Erdoğan earlier mentioned the Sept. 14 Astana summit, saying it was crucial to the Geneva peace talks process.  

The Geneva talks on Syria are expected to take place after those in Astana, but there is no scheduled date.