Turkish President meets Turkic counterparts


BODRUM, Turkey — Turkish President Abdullah Gül has held separate talks with his Turkmen, Kyrgyz and Azerbaijani counterparts focusing on opportunities in energy, transport and culture, according to presidential sources.Gül met his Turkic counterparts on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TÜRKSOY) in the Turkish tourism resort of Bodrum in southwestern Muğla province on Wednesday. He later gave an official dinner in honor of the visits by Turkmen President GurbanGüly Berdimuhammedov, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.Bodrum hosted the fourth summit of TURKSOY on Wednesday, an international cultural organization for countries with Turkic populations speaking tongues belonging to the Turkic language family. TURKSOY has six sovereign member states and eight non-sovereign observer states.