Politics & Diplomacy
Erdoğan and Aliyev: an “unshakeable” alliance after the headscarf row – what was said in Shusha
Meeting in Shusha on November 8, Erdoğan and Aliyev stressed the “eternal and unshakeable” unity of Turkey and Azerbaijan after weeks of public friction over the headscarf ban and ties with Israel.
“The unity of Turkey and Azerbaijan is eternal and unshakeable.” With that phrase Ilham Aliyev summed up the visit of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Shusha on Sunday, November 8, the sixth anniversary of the city’s recapture. The private meeting and the press statements that followed were the first in-person contact between the two presidents after weeks of public friction, and both sides took care to send a message to those who spoke of a rift.
In the statements that followed, Mr Aliyev said that those who seek to undermine the unity and brotherhood of the two countries “will never achieve their goals” and that the two leaders will not allow anyone to “come between us” for their own interests. He thanked Mr Erdoğan for his support in the 44-day war of 2020 and recalled his phrase “Azerbaijan is not alone.” According to the Azerbaijani president, the talks covered political and economic ties, investment, energy, transport corridors and the Zangezur corridor.
Mr Erdoğan repeated almost the same wording: those who want to weaken the alliance, enshrined in the Shusha Declaration of June 15, 2021, “will not succeed, neither today nor tomorrow, just as they did not succeed yesterday.” He thanked Baku for its chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States and pledged that Ankara, during its own chairmanship, will try to make the organisation stronger and more institutionalised.
The background: the headscarf, Israel and an absence
The insistence on “unshakeable” was no accident. Since September, relations have been tested by the ban on the Islamic headscarf in Azerbaijani schools and by Baku’s close ties with Israel. Mr Erdoğan’s chief adviser, Oktay Saral, called the decision “unacceptable,” and Azerbaijan’s ruling party responded with a harsh statement, as we covered in our analysis of the first big quarrel. According to Turkish media, Mr Erdoğan eventually removed Mr Saral after a demand from Mr Aliyev, while Baku banned entry to more than 30 Turkish citizens who had criticised the decision.
The peak came in late October, when Mr Aliyev did not attend the Organization of Turkic States summit in Ankara despite Mr Erdoğan’s personal invitation, and Azerbaijan was represented by Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov. A few days later, Azerbaijan signed a new military cooperation programme with Russia.
In Shusha, Mr Erdoğan recited verses by the Azerbaijani poet Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh about the two states, while the visit programme included the Khojaly memorial and the Victory Memorial in Khankendi, the city Armenians call Stepanakert. The Turkish president also mentioned that a 40-classroom school is being built in Aghdam, and said he would attend its opening next year together with Mr Aliyev.
