TÜRKSOY — International Organization of Turkic Culture

TÜRKSOY is an international organisation created to protect, study and keep alive the shared cultural heritage of the Turkic peoples. The idea took shape at meetings of Turkic culture ministers in Baku and Istanbul in 1992, and the founding agreement was signed in Almaty on 12 July 1993. It is headquartered in Ankara.

It has six members: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Türkiye and Turkmenistan. The Turkic republics of Russia — Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Khakassia, Tuva, Altai and Sakha (Yakutia) — as well as Gagauzia and Northern Cyprus take part as observers.

TÜRKSOY organises concerts, gatherings of painters and writers and symposia on history and language, publishes books in Turkic languages and promotes Nowruz at UNESCO and the UN. Since 2012 a city has been named the "Cultural Capital of the Turkic World" each year: Astana, Eskişehir, Kazan, Merv, Shaki (2016), Turkistan, Kastamonu, Osh, Khiva, Bursa, Shusha (2023), Anau and Aktau.