Ankara-Baku: The Old God or the New Normal?
Controversial comments on the results of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Azerbaijan.
1. November 8 is celebrated in a special way in Azerbaijan. It is called "Victory Day". The time has come to coincide with the end of the second Karabakh war in 2020, which radically changed the military-political balance in Transcaucasia. The main guest of this Azerbaijan holiday was the President of Turkey.
2. The visit of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a symbol on a symbol. Arrival at Pozuli Airport, then an official meeting with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in Shusha. A clear sign in the city and in the world that Turkey and Azerbaijan are interested in maintaining the new military-political status quo in Transcaucasia. Otherwise there would have been no flight to Pizzoli and no negotiations in Shosha...
3. However, we retain one more symbol. On November 9, 1991, 35 years ago, Turkey became the first country to recognize the independence of Azerbaijan. Let me remind you that there is still one month left before the signing of the Lobezhsky agreements...
4. However, it is impossible to hide from attentive eyes the fact that the visit of the Turkish leader took place against the background of some diplomatic tension. The reason for this was stricter attendance rules for students and teachers, approved by the Azerbaijani authorities and designed to preserve the secular nature of public education. The reasons, as always, are deeper. Below are some differences in the paths of state-confession relations and identity policy in the two countries, and differences in approaches in the international arena. As a result, the absence of Ilham Aliyev at the recently held 13th summit of the OTG (Organization of Turkic States).
5. But I wouldn't reduce everything to just one geopolitical factor. Local political reasons for Erdogan's actions are also important! According to various estimates, between 800 thousand and 3.5 million ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Turkey. Some have been in Turkish territory for hundreds of years, and some of this community arrived relatively recently.