The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arrived in Azerbaijan earlier today (26 October), for a one day working visit.
Erdogan was greeted by his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, as the first head of state to land at the new Fuzuli airport. As part of the inaugural ceremony for the airport, the duo cut the ribbon and were symbolically handed the keys to the building. The construction began in January this year with the collaboration of Turkish companies, and the airport has marketed itself as “Karabakh’s gateway to the world”.
The Turkish president was accompanied by the ministers of the Environment and Urbanization, Murat Kurum, Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, National Defense, Hulusi Akar, and of Transport and Infrastructure, Adil Karaismailoğlu.
According to the government website, the Turkish president also attended “the groundbreaking ceremony of Ahmetbeyli-Fuzuli-Shusha and Ahmetbeyli-Horadiz-Mincivan-Ağbend motorways”, with the report also noting that “all aspects of the Turkey-Azerbaijan relations will be reviewed, and steps to be taken to further deepen the cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan will be discussed. Views will be exchanged regarding current regional and international developments as well as bilateral relations”.
An official welcome ceremony was held for Erdogan in Aghali village, Zangilan district, where a guard of honuor was arranged for and the square decorated with the national flags of the two countries.
This constitutes Erdogan's third visit to Azerbaijan since the end of the war last November, after a trip to Shusha in June, and Baku in December.