Erdoğan hails bilateral ties during visit to Azerbaijan

Turkey's newly elected President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated in his first official visit to Azerbaijan that it is time for the implementation of promises given to Turkey's close ally, pointing out that his delegation will ask for those promises to be implemented during his visit to the NATO summit to be held in Wales on Sept. 4-5.

“There were promises given to Azerbaijan both at NATO summits and in other related meetings. We will bring these promises to the agenda there [at the NATO summit] and ask for them to be implemented by the countries concerned. It should be done the way the promises are fulfilled for other countries, step by step,” Erdoğan said in a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev in Baku on Wednesday.

Erdoğan is paying his first official visit to Azerbaijan, a country with which Turkey enjoys a close relationship, after being elected as the 12th president of Turkey. His first official trip abroad was paid to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) on Monday.

Erdoğan's plane landed in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, late on Tuesday. The Turkish president and his wife Emine Erdoğan were welcomed at Heydar Aliyev International Airport by Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Yaqub Eyyubov. Having been greeted by high-ranking officials, Erdoğan and his wife walked past a guard of honor.

An official welcoming ceremony was staged for President Erdoğan by Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev in front of the presidential palace in Baku on Wednesday. During the ceremony, Erdoğan was accompanied by Turkey's new Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız.

After a meeting with President Aliyev, Erdoğan later chaired the Turkish delegation in talks with their Azerbaijani counterparts which ended with a joint press conference by both leaders.

During the talks, Erdoğan touched on topics such as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) project, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the Shah Deniz II project as well as the current state of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad project.

Noting that both sides discussed bilateral ties in various fields including culture, education, foreign affairs and energy issues, Erdoğan said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict -- which is locked in deadlock after more than 20 years of Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territory -- was the main topic of conversation for both leaders.

“It is obvious that Nagorno-Karabakh is the most important topic between our two countries,” Erdoğan said. Reiterating his views on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Erdoğan told journalists that the conflict should be resolved by respecting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh -- an Azerbaijani territory predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians -- was the subject of a bitter conflict in the early 1990s when Armenian armed forces occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven Azerbaijani-populated adjacent provinces. Although a cease-fire was agreed upon, there has been no lasting peace agreement and diplomatic efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group have so far failed. 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory is still under Armenian control, despite four UN resolutions demanding the withdrawal of Armenian forces. After the start of the conflict, Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani President Aliyev spoke after Erdoğan at the same press conference, emphasizing the strength of Turkish-Azerbaijani ethnic, linguistic and historical ties and mentioned his gratitude to Erdoğan for his efforts "to support Azerbaijan's just position for a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."

"Turkey has always supported Azerbaijan [over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] on all international platforms and so stands by justice and impartiality," Aliyev said.

(Today's Zaman)

Bakudaily.Az