President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, "We are moving shoulder to shoulder with Azerbaijan. With the end of the occupation in Karabakh, a historic window of opportunity has opened for permanent peace in our region."
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Erdoğan laid out the following remarkable statements in his speech:
"I congratulate my dear brother Ilham Aliyev once again on being elected as the President of Azerbaijan for the fifth time, with the high approval of his people. I am greatly pleased that Ilham brother's first official foreign visit after being elected president was to Türkiye. As you know, the presidential elections held on February 7 have historical significance as they were held for the first time in all sovereign territories of Azerbaijan. I hope the election results will bring good things for Türkiye-Azerbaijan relations and the fraternal Azerbaijani people."
Unfortunately, Azerbaijan faced some unjust practices during the election process. We strongly expressed our reaction to the decision of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to prevent the participation of the Azerbaijani delegation in this year's meetings. We will continue to emphasize that this assembly should be a platform for dialogue to strengthen parliamentary democracy, not conflict. Until the decision is overturned, we will continue to support Azerbaijan and our efforts in this regard.
In our meetings with my dear brother, we reviewed all aspects of our bilateral relations and evaluated regional and international issues. We see that our cooperation with Azerbaijan progresses on the basis of the principle of one nation, two states, as indicated by the late Great National Leader Heydar Aliyev. Our total trade volume reached $7.5 billion for the first time last year. We are determined to increase our efforts to reach our $15 billion target.
It is evident that during a period of critical challenges, we need to develop the potential of our countries in transportation and energy fields. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line is essentially one of the most concrete examples of this. Urgent renewal works need to be completed for us to get the highest efficiency from this line. During my visit to the Turkish gate Nahcivan in September, together with Mr. Aliyev, we signed a memorandum of understanding for the Kars-Nakhchivan railway project with this understanding. Increasing the capacity of TANAP and transferring Caspian natural gas to Türkiye and Europe are among our priorities in this field. I also want to remind that during my visit to Nahcivan, we laid the foundation for the Iğdır-Nahcivan natural gas pipeline project, which adds a new dimension to our energy cooperation.
During our discussions, we also discussed the steps taken for the peace and stability of South Caucasus. It is undoubtedly certain that the signing of a permanent peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia will be a new source of hope for peace, tranquility, and stability in our region and the world. We are moving shoulder to shoulder with Azerbaijan in this process. With the end of the occupation in Karabakh, a historic opportunity window has opened for permanent peace in our region. It is very important that this window of opportunity is not closed. I believe Armenia should evaluate this process with a strategic perspective for the long term. We invite third parties to contribute constructively to the process instead of poisoning it. I also want to express our hope that the incidents that occurred on the border of the two countries in recent days will not happen again. I wish urgent recovery to our Azerbaijani army member brother who was injured.
During our discussions, we also evaluated the massacres committed by Israel in Gaza, which disregard all human values and international law, and other disputes concerning our region. Our family council continues to work for the further institutionalization and strengthening of our unity in the Organization of Turkic States. I especially want to express my pleasure that the extraordinary summit of our organization will be held in Shusha, one of the cultural capitals of the Turkic world, in July. In the coming period, we will continue to walk the path with our brotherly law of kinship with Azerbaijan and the spirit we put forth in the Shusha Declaration.
I thank all the Azerbaijani people through my dear brother for the solidarity they showed with our nation during the earthquakes on February 6. In addition to their other aid, Azerbaijan is building 1,000 houses and 799 workplaces on 320 acres of land in Kahramanmaraş. Last week, during our visit to Maraş, we received information about the works carried out on Azerbaijan Boulevard.
