(Bloomberg) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visiting Azerbaijan on Sunday for events marking the sixth anniversary of its victory in the 44-day war with Armenia, indicating a potential easing of recent tensions between the regional allies.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that Erdogan was headed to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, where he’s expected to meet President Ilham Aliyev for talks on bilateral cooperation and regional and global developments.
The visit comes amid a flareup of tensions between Ankara and Baku, despite their longstanding political, military and strategic partnership.
The nations are key allies in the South Caucasus, where their cooperation underpins energy supplies to Europe, trade routes linking Europe and Asia, and regional security. The alliance also plays an important role in a region where Russia, Iran and Western powers compete for influence.
Azerbaijan’s Victory Day, celebrated on Nov. 8, marks the capture of the strategic city of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan but historically populated mainly by ethnic Armenians. A Russian-brokered ceasefire ended the war two days later, and Azerbaijan took full control of the region in 2023, prompting ethnic Armenians to flee.
Tensions between Turkey and Azerbaijan flared in September after Baku effectively banned Islamic headscarves in schools. That move was criticized by Erdogan’s ruling party, which had lifted similar restrictions in Turkey. Baku condemned what it called interference in its internal matters, and barred 31 Turkish nationals over critical social media posts. Erdogan later dismissed an adviser who’d criticized the ban.
Azerbaijan’s close ties with Israel have also caused friction with Turkey. Baku buys Israeli weapons and supplies Israel with oil shipped through Turkey.
At the height of the tensions, Aliyev skipped an Oct. 30 summit of regional leaders in Ankara despite a personal invitation, sending his foreign minister instead. His absence was seen as a rare diplomatic snub between allies that often describe their relationship as “one nation, two states.”
–With assistance from Murat Oztaskin.
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