Today marks the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye. President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In addition, members of the Azerbaijan–Türkiye interparliamentary working group visited the statue of founding leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Baku, and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also congratulated Türkiye.
Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, for his part, has travelled to Türkiye to take part in the 13th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS), to be held in Ankara. These steps draw attention against the backdrop of the tense situation observed between the two countries in recent times.
Political analyst Turab Rzayev told Globalinfo.az that Türkiye and Azerbaijan are each other’s natural allies:
“It can be said that the two countries share a single history, population and set of customs and traditions. As the Great Leader said, we are one nation, two states. Therefore, at no period of history could a critical rift or break occur between the two countries.
However, one point must be understood here: although Azerbaijan and Türkiye are the same nation, they are two separate states. Each state’s particular foreign and domestic policy may not be identical to the other’s.
Turab Rzayev
We have witnessed this many times over the past 30-plus years. Differences of opinion between the two countries may not have been so noticeable before, but today these differences are making themselves felt. For example, the rapprochement between Armenia and Türkiye can serve as an example. Azerbaijan’s view of this matter is different. We have our own approach and our own conditions.
But this does not push into the background the fact that Azerbaijan is Türkiye’s natural ally, nor the reality of a strategic military alliance confirmed by the Shusha Declaration. The mutual phone calls between the two countries’ leaders and their congratulating each other should also be seen as normal in this regard.”
Turan Rzayev
Globalinfo.az
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