On December 23, at the 11th Summit of Heads of States and Governments of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) the chairmanship of the organization moved from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Turkish Zaman daily reports.

ECO was founded in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. Today the organization also includes Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.