Kazakhstan: Founding Member of the Organization of Turkic States

The forerunner of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the Turkic Council (TC), was founded on October 3, 2009, to promote comprehensive cooperation among the Turkic States. The Republic of Kazakhstan is among the founding members of TC and the OTS, which has since become a beacon of value for the Turkic world. In fact, the founder and first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, a visionary statesman, supported the idea of the Turkic Council wholeheartedly and helped bring it to the international stage, establishing it as a full-fledged international organization with headquarters in İstanbul.[1]

Kazakhstan’s Accession to the Abraham Accords

The Kazakh Foreign Affairs Ministry officially declared on November 7, 2025, that Kazakhstan had acceded to the Abraham Accords, US-sponsored agreements aimed at normalizing relations between Israel and several Muslim-majority countries. The Ministry’s statement announced that “This important decision was made solely in the interests of Kazakhstan and is fully consistent with the nature of the republic’s balanced, constructive, and peaceful foreign policy. strategic goals."[2] In the meantime,  per the The Astana Times, Kazakhastan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated that “by joining the Abraham Accords, Kazakhstan aims ‘to help overcome confrontation, promote dialogue, and support international law grounded in the UN Charter’ [and] also underlined that this move ‘does not affect Kazakhstan’s bilateral commitments with any state,’ reflecting the country’s multilateral and peace-oriented diplomacy.”[3]

Netanyahu's rhetoric about a 'hexagon' of alliances around or within the Middle East

Before Indian Prime Minister Modi's "state visit" to Israel on February 25-26, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu made statements regarding the balance of power in the Middle East before the cabinet meeting on February 22, which is of interest to Türkiye. Netanyahu's remarks regarding this matter are quoted verbatim in the Israeli Foreign Ministry statement as follows:

“This week, expression will be given to the special relationship that has been forged over recent years between Israel and the global power that is India, and between me and its leader, Prime Minister Modi... In any case, one thing has happened: The fabric of this relationship has grown tighter, and he is coming here so we can tighten it further through a series of decisions related to strengthening cooperation between our governments and countries.

I want to say something regarding the diplomatic aspect: In the vision I see before me, we will create an entire system, essentially a 'hexagon' of alliances around or within the Middle East. This includes India, Arab nations, African nations, Mediterranean nations (Greece and Cyprus), and nations in Asia that I won't detail at the moment. I will present this in an organized manner.”[4]

Netanyahu also stated that the aim  is to "create an axis of nations that share the same views on reality, challenges and goals, against both the radical Shiite axis, which they have dealt very hard blows to, and the emerging radical Sunni axis.”

In this context, although he is avoiding naming them at this stage, there are assessments and predictions being made about which Asian countries Netanyahu is aiming to cooperate with. For example, a news commentary piece recently published in one of the leading Turkish newspapers noted that it is clear that Türkiye is the target of Israel's recent developments in relations with Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, and stated that "it is possible that the Asian country Netanyahu referred to without naming it is Kazakhstan."[5] Meanwhile, it is worth remembering that Kazakhstan was the first member of the OTS to announce its decision to appoint an ambassador to the Greek Cypriot Administration last year.

Final Remarks

Given the current turmoil in international relations, the serious debates surrounding whether the so-called rules-based international order is collapsing and the paradigm shifts in development and foreign policy orientations, it is necessary to assess developments in Türkiye's vicinity realistically, rather than emotionally. Information from open sources indicates that Kazakhstan, which has relations with Türkiye that go beyond kinship, has for some time been pursuing its traditional, multifaceted diplomacy, adverse to the sensitivities of Turkish public opinion. There is no doubt that multifaceted diplomacy has its delicate lines. In this type of diplomacy, it is sometimes difficult to predict what seemingly insignificant adjustments may evolve into. It is not unlikely that such adjustments may suddenly lead to highly unsettling consequences. Thus, identifying connections and implications among events, and diagnosing and naming new formations, even in their nascent stages, requires diplomatic finesse.

In this regard, the recent statements by President Tokayev praising the Greek Cypriot leader and the accelerating openings towards the Greek Cypriot Administration must be seen as part of a broader pattern in which certain external actors, foremost the EU and some of its member states, seek to instrumentalize political and strategic differences among Turkic states in order to dilute the cohesion of the Turkic world.[6] While Brussels continues to speak the language of a so‑called rules‑based order, its selective sensitivity to issues directly affecting Türkiye and the Turkish world reveals a clear double standard that encourages policies that run counter to genuine regional ownership. Against this backdrop, the institutional consolidation and further strengthening of the Organization of Turkic States acquire even greater importance, not only as a framework for functional cooperation but also as a political platform capable of resisting divisive external agendas.

Kazakhstan, which played a pioneering role in this process during the Nazarbayev period, bears a particular responsibility to ensure that its multi‑vector diplomacy does not, even unintentionally, undermine this emerging solidarity and cohesion within the Turkic world.

*Picture: The Times of Central Asia