Turkish-Azerbaijani Solidarity Message

Perhaps the anniversary will be celebrated on September 15, when on the same day of 2010, the parties signed the "Declaration on the establishment of a high-level strategic cooperation council between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Turkey." Turkey has created similar structures with Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Russia and Greece in order to deepen relations.

It does not seem that Azerbaijan and Turkey, which often voice the slogan “Two states - one people”, need such a structure. Since independence, relations have always been in active dynamics and in interaction on all issues of regional and international politics. Rather, it is a tribute to the fashion launched by Turkey.

Over the 10 years of the existence of the Council of the country, such large-scale transport and energy projects as the TANAP gas project, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project, the expansion of the Star petrochemical complex in Turkey have been carried out. The cooperation in the field of regional security, in particular the fight against terrorism, has noticeably intensified.

Erdogan expressed the solidarity of Azerbaijan and Turkey is manifested in all issues, including the fight against terrorism. He noted  that Azerbaijan  most of all supported Turkey in the fight against the terrorist organization "FETO".

On Karabakh issues and Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, Ankara shows full solidarity in terms of both political settlement and pressure on Armenia by torpedoing all Yerevan’s initiatives to unblock communications.

"The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is also our question ... The settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is our greatest desire," Erdogan said following the meeting. All these aspects, expressed on February 25 in Baku by both parties, demonstrated the invariability and consistency of policies in all areas.

Perhaps two topics of the meeting attracted attention. They were represented by Erdogan. He stated the need to increase mutual trade from $ 4.5 billion to $ 15 billion by 2024 and implement the Nakhchivan-Turkey gas pipeline and railway projects.

In the first case, Erdogan’s statement seems overstated, since there are no resources available that could provide three-fold growth. Even taking into account that by 2024 Turkey will be able to receive 15 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan, this factor is not able to play a decisive role in the implementation of Erdogan’s idea. It is possible that he is pursuing a goal with the help of an overestimated bar to push the bilateral trade and economic relations to at least double increase, which is more realistic.

As for Nakhchivan, the new gas pipeline projects will enhance the transport and energy security of the Azerbaijani autonomy on the one hand; on the other hand it will indicate the strengthening of the Turkish presence in the Lesser Caucasus region, which will strengthen the security of Nakhchivan from Armenia, which today is supported by Yerevan and Baku by increasing military means on this section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

“Thus, a gas pipeline with a length of about 160 km will be created, which will greatly facilitate the gas supply to Nakhchivan,” Erdogan said.

The main result of this meeting, like all previous ones, can still be called a demonstration of solidarity, which is a message to all interested players in the region. “Our unity is eternal. We are building our future on a solid foundation,” the President of Azerbaijan.