Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev appeared together in Shusha on Sunday to reaffirm their alliance after recent diplomatic strains.
The leaders met in the historic mountain city of Karabakh for Azerbaijan's Victory Day, marking the sixth anniversary of the 2020 war's end. Aliyev laid a wreath at the Victory Monument in Khankendi and called the liberation of Shusha on 8 November 2020 the decisive moment of the conflict. Erdoğan and his wife Emine were greeted by Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva.
The visit came after weeks of public friction. Aliyev skipped a Turkic states summit in Ankara on 30 October despite a personal invitation from Erdoğan, sending Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov instead. The absence followed criticism in Turkey of Azerbaijan's September ban on hijabs in schools and divergent approaches to Israel.
At a joint press conference, Aliyev declared that "this unity will last forever" and described the relationship as "eternal and unshakable." He said there were "no countries in the world as attached to each other as Azerbaijan and Turkey." Erdoğan said those seeking to weaken the brotherhood "will never achieve their aims, not yesterday, not today, not tomorrow."
Both leaders invoked the Shusha Declaration of 15 June 2021, which elevated bilateral relations to an alliance. Aliyev recalled Turkish support during the 44-day war in 2020, saying "throughout the 44 days... you and the brotherly Turkish people stood by our side." Erdoğan praised Azerbaijan's reconstruction work in Karabakh and reaffirmed support for lasting peace in the South Caucasus.
The two countries' divergent Israel policies remain a source of friction. Azerbaijan has cultivated a strategic partnership with Israel that includes major arms supplies and oil exports accounting for roughly 40 percent of Israel's crude imports. Erdoğan dispatched Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın to Azerbaijan on 5 November, though no agreements addressing the recent differences were announced.
