By Ruslan Rehimov
BAKU, Azerbaijan - The Alliance of Turkic News Agencies (ATNA) highlighted the importance of inter-agency coordination and cooperation at its meeting held on Sunday.
Held as part of the Second Global Media Forum in Shusha, Azerbaijan's recently liberated Karabakh region, the event featured representatives from news agencies of Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and, Hungary.
ATNA should function as a hub for coordinating news and projects among Turkic countries, said Vugar Aliyev, the chairman of the board of directors of Azerbaijan's state news agency Azertac.
He stated that ATNA should increase its cooperation with other regional organizations, emphasizing Anadolu's efforts in this regard. Anadolu currently holds the presidency of ATNA.
Aliyev said the meeting's venue, Shusha, is one of the most important cities of the Turkic world, and the event will leave a historical mark in the field of media in the Turkic world.
Anadolu’s board member Yusuf Ozkir called for increased collaboration to combat disinformation and enhance cultural ties. "If we can build a process with concrete outputs in the coming period, it will have a very strong sub-impact and contribution to the vision desired within the scope of the Organization of Turkic States," he said.
Representatives from other agencies also underlined the need to further enhance relations between the media of Turkic countries.
Representatives from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan praised Anadolu's recent War Journalism Training program.
ATNA was founded in November 2023 by news agencies from five Turkic states to increase cooperation in news gathering and disseminating accurate information to the public.
The Organization of Turkic States was established in 2009 as an intergovernmental organization to promote comprehensive cooperation among Turkic states. Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are members of the organization, while Hungary, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Turkmenistan are observer states.
Azerbaijan regained control of most of the Armenian-occupied Karabakh region, including the city of Shusha, during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which concluded with a Russian-brokered peace deal that paved the way for normalization and border delineation.
Last September, Azerbaijan established complete sovereignty over Karabakh when separatist forces in the region surrendered.
*Writing by Yasin Gungor in Istanbul