Youth and sports ministers from the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) gathered in Bishkek this week to plot a deeper cultural and sporting connection across the Turkic world — and for travellers, the most interesting thread running through the meeting is the growing prominence of the World Nomad Games.
Kyrgyzstan's Culture, Information and Youth Policy Minister, Mambetaliyev, framed youth policy as a long-term investment, noting that more than 2.5 million young people make up roughly a third of his country's population. Kyrgyzstan has a youth policy concept running through 2030, and it is pushing several concrete initiatives for 2027: designating the city of Manas as the "Youth Center of the Turkic World", hosting a multilateral youth exchange programme, and staging a forum for young leaders and entrepreneurs. A chess tournament among Turkic-speaking countries, an idea originally floated by Türkiye, is also on the table.
The sporting hook is the strongest one. Officials celebrated the expansion of the World Nomad Games under the OTS umbrella, and Kyrgyzstan's sports agency head Asanbaev said this year's sixth edition, hosted in Kyrgyzstan, had strengthened ties between member countries. For the uninitiated, the games are exactly what they sound like: a celebration of nomadic heritage featuring horse-centred sports, wrestling traditions and contests such as kok-boru (a team game played on horseback with a goat carcass), alongside cultural showcases from Central Asia and beyond.
Other member states chipped in with their own angles. Azerbaijan's deputy minister wants future cooperation built around young people's professional interests rather than generic gatherings. Uzbekistan's youth agency head pointed to the roughly 76 million young people across the Turkic world as the group's real asset. Türkiye's Youth and Sports Minister, Osman Aşkın Bak, said a decade of initiatives is now maturing into lasting joint projects, and promised more opportunities to bring young athletes together. Kazakhstan and the OTS secretariat both reaffirmed their commitment.
The next round of diplomacy is confirmed too: the 11th Meeting of Youth and Sports Ministers will take place in Türkiye next year.
Why should a traveller care? Because soft-power cooperation of this kind tends to mean better-organised, better-funded cultural events across the region. If the World Nomad Games keep growing and new youth forums and exchanges take root, expect more festivals, competitions and cross-border events in Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan in the coming years — good news for anyone drawn to Central Asia's nomadic traditions and the mountains and steppe that shaped them.
Full story: Daily Sabah Travel.
