The Ambassadorial Talk Series hosted by the Turkic American Alliance (TAA) has begun to give its fruit. Today, Ambassador of Kazakhstan, H.E. Erlan A. Idrissov gave an informative talk on the topic Central Asia and the Caucasus: 20 Years of Independenceto TAA’s audience including Congressional staffers, officials from the US State Department and the White House as well as Representatives of the Turkic American Community. This talk was a start up to this special Ambassadorial Talk
Series which intended to celebrate the 20th Anniversaryof Independence of our brother countries.
The Turkic American Alliance aims to inform Members of the US Congress, Senators and their staffers alongside officials in Washington D.C., and the Turkic American Community about the achievements of countries in Central Asia and Caucasus in passing 20 years. In terms of this context, Ambassador Erlan A. Idrissov’s talk was immensely noteworthy.
President of Turkic American Alliance, Dr. Faruk Taban sincerely welcomed H.E. Erlan A. Idrissov and thanked him for his coming to the TAA’s headquarters. And then, by warmly welcoming guests, Dr. Taban introduced Ambassador Erlan A. Idrissov of Kazakhstan to guests and invited His Excellency to the table.
H.E. Erlan A. Idrissov began his words by underlining that Kazakhs have more than 5 thousand years of history which begins from Oguz Khan. By beginning from the history of Kazakhs, the Ambassador mentioned about large Kazakh immigrations to China, India and from India to Turkey for the first time in the Central Asian history via sea route as well as many other places of the world. H.E. Idrissov discussed the Soviet era of the Kazakhstan Republic.
Furthermore, Ambassador Idrissov talked about the geo-strategic position of Kazakhstan with its various benefits and challenges. However, more importantly, he addressed two key problems of Kazakhstan since the Independence, which was dignity and cultural tolerance. When we consider different ethnic groups in Kazakhstan, Mr. Idrissov said we had to take into account those groups’ dignity and become tolerant toward our citizens.
In accordance, H.E. Erlan A. Idrissov listed top priorities of Kazakhstan since their independence in order; political stability and territorial integrity, promoting cultural ties in society, economy, pipeline policy because of being the largest land-locked country in the world and transportation policy, healthy life of people and education policy, and then dynamic and friendly foreign policy. Ambassador Idrissov underlined that we don’t divide the world into groups; we consider the world as a society in whole. Afterwards, he touched upon the relations of Kazakhstan with China, Russia, the US and Europe as well as other countries. Ambassador Idrissov mentioned specifically about the Turkic Speaking Countries Cooperation Council which has secretariat in Istanbul, and Turksoy which is a Joint Administration of Turkic Arts and Culture (in Turkish: Turk Kultur ve Sanatlar Ortak Yonetimi (TURKSOY) as an example of Kazakhstan’s cultural relations with its neighbors and Turkic people.
In addition, there were really informative talks on Kazakhstan’s education policy by focusing on Bolashak Education Program, along with public and private Universities and schools.
After all, Dr. Faruk Taban gave a small present to Ambassador Erlan A. Idrissov as a remembrance by the Turkic American Alliance. Mr. Idrissov then came to the wonderful rooftop of the Turkic American Alliance and took a picture.
