President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday held a phone call with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications said.
The directorate said that the two leaders discussed bilateral ties as well as regional and international developments. Erdoğan congratulated the D-8 membership for Azerbaijan, which was admitted to the body in a Cairo summit also attended by Erdoğan earlier this month.
Erdoğan told Aliyev that he closely followed developments regarding the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia and expected it to be conclusive, contributing to “lasting stability and prosperity for Southern Caucasus.” The president also congratulated the birthday of 63-year-old Aliyev. Azerbaijan’s Presidency said in a statement that Aliyev thanked Erdoğan for Türkiye’s support of their D-8 membership. Aliyev said they agreed with Türkiye for joint efforts for the social and economic development of Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime.
Türkiye is among the closest allies of Azerbaijan, a bond based on ethnic kinship and Ankara always defended Azerbaijan’s efforts to retake Karabakh, an enclave occupied by Armenia. After Baku claimed victory in Karabakh, a peace process with Armenia began. In parallel, Türkiye runs its own normalization process with Armenia years after severing ties with the former Soviet republic over its occupation of Azerbaijani territories.