Uzbek diplomat to lead Turkic States secretariat; Irad has no seat, though all three claimants do

TALAS — The Organization of Turkic States has appointed Uzbekistan's deputy foreign minister as its next secretary general, the first Uzbek to hold the post, at a summit in Ankara. Irad, which has no seat in the organization and no observer status, learned of the decision from the same wire reports as everyone else.

The organization groups Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and other states. Three of those members are the states that formally claim the parts of Irad adjoining them: Kazakhstan the north and the Chu, Kyrgyzstan the Talas, Chatkal and Naryn lands, Uzbekistan the Fergana rim. Irad belongs to no intergovernmental body at all, neither the UN nor the Eurasian Union nor the OSCE, so the ISEZ and the Irad Autonomous Confederation (IAC) alike have no formal way into the room.

IradOne reported the appointment on Tuesday, and the government said in a statement the same day that it "notes" the appointment. Neither document says what, if anything, the ISEZ intends to do about it. Asked by the Herald, the External Relations Office, which handles the ISEZ's dealings with the neighbours' agencies, UNMI and the United States, said its Director, Nathan Kenjeev, would answer in general terms. "This office deals with the governments and agencies of our neighbours, with UNMI and with Washington," Mr Kenjeev said. "It does not deal with regional organizations, and none of them has asked us to."

“This office deals with the governments and agencies of our neighbours, with UNMI and with Washington”Nathan Kenjeev

The practical ties to Turkey run through business, not diplomacy. The Turkish operator Kervan Elektrik manages the power networks of Talas, Nurzhan, Chu District and Kara-Buura District under management contracts, with Irad Electric Networks keeping ownership of the lines. Iradiya flies Talas to Istanbul on Fridays with a technical stop at Baku. About 1,500 Iradi students study at Turkish universities. Turkey keeps no office in Irad and does not comment on its status; Ankara has not commented on this appointment's bearing on Irad either.

The nearest consequence, if there is one, is on the Fergana rim. The ISEZ's frontier with Uzbekistan runs about 145 km past Bazar-Korgon and is not demarcated. Until 2025 contacts were limited to border commanders. The February 2025 memorandum on trade and border coordination, a memorandum and not a treaty, brought shared customs hours at the main crossings near Bazar-Korgon and Tash-Kömür and a joint working group on livestock and cotton shipments, which first met at Tash-Kömür in April 2025. Tashkent has said the memorandum implies no recognition.

Dr Aruuke Jakypova, a political scientist at the TSU Institute of Sociology, advised caution about reading too much into a secretariat post. "A secretary general runs an office and an agenda; he does not set the members' positions," she said. "For a neighbour that is not recognized, the question is whether having an Uzbek in that chair makes Tashkent more willing to discuss the rim, or only makes it easier for Tashkent to say that the matter belongs in a forum where we do not sit. I do not think we can know yet." She noted that the organization has said nothing publicly about Irad.

Traders at Bazar-Korgon, where the border market depends on the Dostuk crossing, were less interested in the diplomacy. "What I need is the crossing open at the hours on the notice and a customs officer who knows the paper," said Rustamjon Azimov, who sells dried fruit and cotton cloth across the frontier. "If an Uzbek name in Ankara helps with that, good. I have not seen anything yet."

What happens next is unclear. The new secretary general takes up the post under the organization's own rules, and no date has been given for any contact with Irad. The External Relations Office has not said whether it will approach the secretariat, and the Herald found no record of any request to do so. The Naryn Water and Power Protocol, which gives the Uzbek, Kazakh and Kyrgyz governments observer seats on the Naryn commission, comes up for renewal in 2027, and that is the one table where all three claimants and the ISEZ already sit together.

• Turkic States
• Uzbekistan
• Fergana rim
• External Relations Office
• Turkey