Inaugural GAR Live: Turkic Region

🌍 One month ago, the inaugural GAR Live: Turkic Region brought together practitioners, arbitrators, academics, and in-house counsel from across the Turkic world and beyond to exchange views on legal developments and reflect on the region’s growing role in shaping the global arbitration landscape.

🎤 Co-chaired by Anna Guillard Sazhko and Ali Gürsel, this exceptional conference featured a keynote address by Professor Rolf Knieper, who shared his deep insights into legal reform across the region, drawn from decades of collaboration with its institutions and governments.

🌟 Bringing GAR Live to Central Asia for the first time was about more than geography. It was a recognition of the increasing global relevance of disputes, lawyers, and institutions emerging from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and beyond.

What we witnessed in Almaty was a dynamic, confident, and truly engaged community — spanning generations, sectors, and jurisdictions.

👏 Our congratulations to the GAR team, especially David Samuels, for your trust and commitment, and to Sheonaid Carlin, Diksha Babbar, Alicia Alvarez, Susannah Moody, Daniel Monk, Graham Day and Gabrielle Howell for your dedication and professionalism in making the event such a success.

👏 A thank you to all our speakers for generously sharing your expertise and to our audience for your curiosity, thoughtful engagement, and warmth throughout the day.

🇰🇿🇰🇬🇺🇿🇦🇿🇹🇷 It was especially meaningful to welcome representatives from every Turkic country — a reflection of the truly regional nature of this initiative.

From Kyrgyzstan: Shamaral Maichiev, Zhazgul Altynbekova, Saltanat Imanova, Fatima Iakupbaeva, Asylgul Balybaeva, Aijan Orozakunova, and nurgazy nurgaziev.

From Uzbekistan:Sanjar Adenov and Akbar Karshiev.

From Azerbaijan: Ruslan Bayramov.

From Kazakhstan: Yelena Dvoretskaya-Yussupova, Ilya Kirichenko, Artem Timoshenko, Yekaterina Khamidullina, and Kristina Mychka.

It was a real pleasure to see so many friends and colleagues and many more not listed here whose work continues to shape arbitration across the region.

The conversations that started in Almaty will continue and we’re excited to see how they will influence the future of arbitration in the Turkic region and beyond.

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