Turkic states sign Baku Declaration to create first union of composers

Composers' organizations from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Hungary founded the Turkic Union of Composers on Friday, signing the Baku Declaration at the first Congress of Composers of the Turkic World, Report.az reported. The signatories committed to "permanent professional cooperation between composers, musicologists, conservatories, music academies, and creative unions of Turkic countries."

The congress opened Friday at the headquarters of the Union of Composers of Azerbaijan in Baku, drawing heads of composers' organizations from the Turkic states, musicologists, cultural figures and media, according to Report.az. It runs Sept. 18-20 within the 18th Uzeyir Hajibeyli International Music Festival, Trend reported. The festival itself opened Sept. 18 at the Azerbaijan State Academic Philharmonic Hall and continues through Sept. 30 with concerts and other events.

Aktoty Raimkulova, president of the International Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation, announced earlier in the day that the declaration would be signed before the session closed. The foundation organized the congress together with Azerbaijan's Ministry of Culture, in partnership with the ICESCO regional office in Baku, the Union of Composers of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan National Conservatory, Trend reported.

What the union will do

According to the declaration, the new body aims to bring together composers, musicologists, performers, conservatories, academies and creative unions across the Turkic countries, Trend reported. Its priorities include preserving shared musical heritage, supporting contemporary schools of composition, encouraging creative exchange, producing joint works and promoting Turkic music on the international stage. Raimkulova said the goal was "a vibrant musical space" in which that shared heritage becomes material for collaboration.

Report.az described the declaration as the first time cooperation among composers of the Turkic countries has received a unified institutional base and a long-term international platform. It added that establishing the union in Azerbaijan carried symbolic weight given the country's tradition of composers such as Uzeyir Hajibeyli, Gara Garayev and Fikret Amirov.

Calls for a catalog and global reach

Artyk Tokansanbayev, chairman of the Association of Composers of Kazakhstan, proposed compiling a catalog of contemporary Turkic music to carry the region's composers to a world audience, APA reported. "We must operate on a large scale by cooperating with the world's largest publishing houses, festivals, and professional agencies," he said.

Abdulhakeem AlSenan, director of the ICESCO regional office in Azerbaijan, told the congress that its timing during the period honoring Hajibeyli's legacy was deliberate. "Uzeyir Hajibeyli formed the modern musical identity of Azerbaijan. He showed us that culture is one of the fundamental pillars for preserving national identity," he said, adding that the composer's work "proves to the whole world once again that music has no language. Music is universal." He also pointed to strong cooperation between Azerbaijan and ICESCO, with the organization's Baku office playing a significant role, Report.az reported. Participants discussed joint projects of the Turkic states in the music sphere and prospects for further cooperation.

What it means: The Turkic states have spent recent years building shared economic and transport institutions; the Baku Declaration extends that pattern into culture, where cooperation until now rested on festivals and personal ties rather than a standing body. The mix of signatories, including Turkmenistan and Hungary alongside the core Turkic republics, mirrors the wider membership of the Turkic political forums, and the involvement of ICESCO gives the initiative a link to a broader Islamic-world cultural network. Tokansanbayev's push for a catalog and deals with major publishers signals that the union's founders see it as an export platform as much as a heritage project. Whether it becomes more than a declaration will depend on funding and follow-through after the Baku congress closes on Sept. 20.