POLITICSAZERBAIJAN
Erdogan visits Azerbaijan after Nagorno-Karabakh cease-fire
3 hours ago3 hours ago
The Turkish president met with his Azerbaijani counterpart in a show of support after Baku seized control of the separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has a majority Armenian population.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is welcomed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev upon his arrival at Nakhchivan International Airport
Turkey is one of Azerbaijan’s biggest alliesImage: Turkish Presidency/Murat Cetinmuhurdar/picture alliance
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed Azerbaijan’s capture of Nagorno-Karabakh during a visit to the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan on Monday.
Erdogan met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev in a show of support just days after Baku seized the separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has a majority Armenian population, in a lightning military operation.
The Turkish president claimed the move opened a window of opportunity for normalization in the region.
He added that he hoped Armenia would take “sincere steps” to grab what he described as an opportunity for stability.
Erdogan was accompanied on his trip by the head of Turkey’s Defense Industry Agency, Haluk Gorgun.
Erdogan and Aliyev discuss Nagorno-Karabakh
Although the visit was officially organized to launch the construction of a gas pipeline, the two presidents also discussed Nagorno-Karabakh.
Aliyev claimed he would protect the rights of ethnic Armenians in the enclave.
“Their rights will be guaranteed by the Azerbaijani state,” he said during the meeting with Erdogan.
Thousands of refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh began flowing into Armenia on Monday in fear of expulsion or revenge from authoritarian Azerbaijan.
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Why is Nakhchivan important?
Nakhchivan a landlocked, autonomous exclave of Azerbaijan that is embroiled another regional dispute. It is separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by a stirp of Armenian territory known as the Zangezur corridor.
From 1995 until 2022 Nakhchivan was ruled by Vasif Talibov, who established an authoritarian local regime where he was accused of corruption and violent crackdowns on the opposition. He is related to the Aliyev family by marriage.
Armenia has embargoed Nakhchivan for many years and all roads and railways between the two parts of Azerbaijan were destroyed during fighting in the 1990s.
Erdogan and Aliyev are expected to call for new land connection to be opened between Nakhchivan and the rest of Azerbaijan.
This would reconnect the exclave with the mainland and give Turkey a strategic land route to the rest of the Turkic world.
Russia, which has had peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh since 2020, has in principle said such a corridor would be feasible.
Russia welcomes meeting
Erdogan’s visit to close ally Azerbaijan comes as Armenia claims that its own security partner, Russia, did not offer enough support. Moscow “categorically” denied the claims.
Russia welcomed the meeting between Erdogan and Aliyev on Monday.
“We always hope that all meetings held by the president of Azerbaijan, including those with the Turkish president, will serve to normalize life in Nagorno-Karabakh after what happened,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
zc/fb (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)
