Historic Summit in Astana: The World Association of Young Trade Unionists Is Founded!

A significant turning point was reached in the fields of global civil society movements and international public diplomacy. The World Association of Young Trade Unionists (WAYTU) — founded to be the voice of young public servants and trade-union leaders worldwide and to scale a next-generation unionism vision to the universal level — was officially declared at an international assembly held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

The historic summit, which brought together representatives of various civil society organizations from Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, created great excitement in the world of labor and on the international stage. In the 21st century — as global public administration becomes digitalized and is reshaped by artificial intelligence technologies — this umbrella organization, which will guide young public laborers in their struggle for rights, positioned itself from day one as the new center of gravity of the global trade-union movement.

01 The Historic Declaration Was Made From Astana

This great global move, whose first strategic contacts were made in Baku, the capital of the brother country Azerbaijan, under the ideal of "One Nation, Two States," turned its direction to the heart of the Turkic geography and reached its historic conclusion. Furkan Ali Çiftçioğlu, Vice-President of the Confederation of Public Servants (DMK) and General Secretary of Genç Sağlık Sendikası — who travelled to Astana to manage the international assembly proceedings, conduct official engagements, and build the union's institutional infrastructure — said at the assembly: "It is the cooperation between Turkic states that will restore the disrupted world order back to its axis."

In his statement to the press following the historic declaration of will issued from Astana, Furkan Ali Çiftçioğlu expressed the pride of carrying the torch of independent, dynamic, and next-generation unionism — kindled in Türkiye — to a universal scale. Çiftçioğlu made the following emphasis in his speech:

Today, here in Astana, we are not merely establishing an international civil society organization; we are rebuilding the future of the global labor movement with the innovative energy and intellectual capital of youth. The seeds of WAYTU are sown today in the Turkic states, and tomorrow this movement will extend to Europe and one day to the American continent. This next-generation vision, which breaks down traditional trade-union molds, will elevate the role of young leaders in the decision-making mechanisms of the digitalizing world bureaucracy to the highest level. The movement we initiated in Astana will rewrite the global trade-union conjuncture and become the milestone of a new era.

02 Osman Kaya Elected Founding President

Following the assembly held with the full consensus and great enthusiasm of the international delegates, Osman Kaya — the visionary leader who has shaped the trade-union movement in Türkiye — was elected Founding President of the World Association of Young Trade Unionists (WAYTU). The global presidency of Osman Kaya, who also holds the offices of President of the Confederation of Public Servants (DMK) and President of Genç Sağlık Sendikası, was received with great confidence and satisfaction within international civil society circles and the bureaucratic mechanisms of the founding member countries. Exporting to the world the mass trade-union success model he built in Türkiye, WAYTU — under the leadership of President Osman Kaya — has taken the field as a direct "playmaker" in the international arena.

03 Great Excitement in the Global Labor World

Together with the news of its establishment, WAYTU — which created broad resonance in many global civil society organizations, particularly the International Labour Organization (ILO), and in academic and bureaucratic circles — signalled from the outset that it will play a decisive role in the labor-force policies of the future. The union, aiming to facilitate intellectual capital transfer between member countries and to elevate the public-diplomacy and negotiation capabilities of young bureaucrats to the highest level, will weave an unshakable institutional solidarity network across borders.

Following this beginning declared in Astana, work to finalize the central governing bodies of the World Association of Young Trade Unionists (WAYTU), to draft international working reports, and to build country representations worldwide began without delay — under the strategic roadmap WAYTU will implement.