Objectives

Our ancestors were the founders of great civilizations in history and left us a rich cultural and scientific heritage. Turkic scientists and thinkers made great contributions to the world science including mathematics, physics, astronomy and geography. Cartography is no exception, it was also born and developed in the Turkic World.

In the 11^th century our great ancestor, the encyclopedist scientist Makhmud Kashgari, providing valuable information about history, lifestyle and culture of the Turkic peoples in his work "Diwan Lughat al-Turk", drew one of the first ancient maps of the world and attached it to his book.

One more world-known Turkish scientist and cartographer - Piri Reis who lived during the Ottoman Empire period in the 16^th century. His map is one of the first known maps that depicted the coastlines of both South and North America with reasonable accuracy. Continuing and developing cooperation in this field is one of the priority directions of the OTS.

Mechanisms

Upon the initiative of the Turkish side, on 30 April 2024, the First Meeting of the Working Group on Mapping of the Turkic States was held via videoconference and all the Parties welcomed the establishment of the cooperation platform in this field.

The 1^st Meeting of Heads of Mapping Institutions of the OTS was held on 30 September – 1 October 2024 in Ankara and one more new cooperation mechanism – the platform for the cooperation among the Mapping Institutions of the Turkic States was established within the OTS.