Erdoğan and Aliyev praise alliance during visit to Azerbaijan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Azerbaijan on the country’s Victory Day, commemorating the defeat of Armenia in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, also meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev. In a joint press conference, the two leaders praised their bilateral alliance and ‘unwavering’ friendship.

The visit on Sunday comes amidst a sharp and unexpected spat between the two close allies over Azerbaijan’s recently introduced ban on hijabs in schools, which has been widely criticised in Turkey. Erdoğan’s attendance on the holiday and accompanying statements about the strength of the Turkish–Azerbaijani alliance — which were repeated by Aliyev — have been viewed as a sign both sides are seeking to move past the spat.

Ahead of the visit, on Saturday, Erdoğan said Azerbaijan’s 2020 victory in the war was a ‘source of pride for the entire Turkic world’.

‘Drawing strength from our unwavering bonds of friendship and brotherhood, founded on the principle of “One nation, two states” […] I am fully confident that we will continue to work in close cooperation and solidarity, both in our bilateral relations and in the international arena’, he continued.

The phrase ‘one nation, two states’ has been a regular refrain used by both Turkey and Azerbaijan to describe how closely bound the two countries are.

Later, in a joint press conference in Shusha (Shushi), which had been under Armenian control until 2020, Erdoğan added that ‘those who seek to weaken this brotherhood […] will never achieve their goals, whether today or tomorrow, just as they failed to do so yesterday’.

‘By the will of Allah, our unity will remain eternally unshakable’, he emphasised.

The sentiment was explicitly repeated by Aliyev, who also said Erdoğan’s ‘presence with us on Victory Day brings joy to the entire Azerbaijani people’.

Both leaders nonetheless acknowledged, albeit in passing, that there were issues in the bilateral relationship.

Aliyev also spoke about Turkish support for Azerbaijan during the 2020 war, which had become something of a lightning rod in recent weeks.

‘My dear brother, you and the brotherly Turkish people stood by us throughout those 44 days [of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War]’, he said, adding, ‘Your [Erdoğan’s] historic words — “Azerbaijan is not alone; Turkey stands by its side” — will never be forgotten’.

Just a month earlier, Aliyev said, ‘we achieved [the victory] entirely on our own’.

‘Everyone has a powerful backer behind them, so to speak — some even have several. But we stood alone’, Aliyev added, later doubling-down in the same speech by saying, ‘When we needed help, no one helped us’.