Azerbaijan–Turkey relations

State visits İlham Aliyev visited Turkey in 2003 shortly after first entering the Azerbaijani political scene at the behest of his ailing father Heydar Aliyev in a move that was interpreted at the time as an indication of political support from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Turkey has supported various indirect bilateral talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia and initiated trilateral dialogue in Reykjavík in 2002 and the Istanbul Summit, 2004 among the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in an attempt to resolve the ongoing conflict, but its diplomatic efforts are hampered by its own tensions with Armenia over the claim of Armenian genocide and its ongoing border blockade against Armenia, which has resulted in subsequent infrastructure projects bypassing Armenian territory. Shusha Declaration . The stamp bears the slogan Bir Millet, İki Devlet (One Nation, Two States) After Azerbaijan won the Second Karabakh War, The Victory Parade was held in Baku with the participation of Turkey and Turkish President Erdoğan. During this parade, President Erdoğan read the lyrics of a famous anonymous folk song Aras Türküsü also known as Ay Laçin (wrongly attributed to Bakhtiyar Vahabzadeh), which led to a controversy between Turkey and Iran regarding Iranian Azerbaijan since Iran has a very large Turk and Azerbaijani population. Months after this ceremony, the Shusha Declaration was signed in Shusha, Karabakh, between Turkish President Erdoğan and Azerbaijani President Aliyev, which deepened the relations between the two countries. After this declaration, political, economic and military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey reached a higher level. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces abandoned the Soviet model by taking the Turkish military as an example. The Azerbaijani defense industry decided to cooperate with Turkish defense companies. Turkey stated that it would support Azerbaijan's Zangezur corridor project. The two countries also formed a defense pact. Armenian–Turkish diplomatic progress in the 2000s On the eve of the April 2009 official visit to Turkey by US President Barack Obama, sources in Ankara and Yerevan announced that a deal may soon be struck to reopen the border between the two states and exchange diplomatic personnel. The two countries have cooperated closely, particularly since the Second Karabakh War in 2020, where Turkey provided military support to Azerbaijan, including the use of Bayraktar TB2 drones. This collaboration has shifted the regional balance in the South Caucasus, diminishing Russia's influence. The strategic partnership extends beyond military matters, with Azerbaijan benefiting from enhanced access to European political and economic systems through its ties with Turkey. As Turkey strengthens its position in Europe and grows its influence in Central Asia, Azerbaijan's relationship with Turkey serves as a model for regional cooperation and diversification of foreign relations. ==Economic relations==

Azerbaijan and Turkey have subsequently built upon their linguistic and cultural ties to form a very close economic partnership that sees Turkey negotiating to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan and the two co-operating, along with neighbouring Georgia, in such infrastructure projects as the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline, the South Caucasus Pipeline, Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway and the proposed Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline STAR The opening of the STAR oil refinery, owned by the Azerbaijani State Oil Company SOCAR, was held in the Turkish city of Izmir on 19 October 2018. The foundation of STAR was laid on 25 October 2011, with the participation of Azerbaijani and Turkish Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The consortium consisting of Técnicas Reunidas (Spain), Saipem (Italy), GS Engineering & Construction Corp (South Korea) and Itochu (Japan) built the plant. TANAP The TANAP project was envisaged on 17 November 2011, at the Third Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum in Istanbul. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Azerbaijan and Turkey on the Trans Anatolian Gas Pipeline Project on 24 December 2011, in order to establish a consortium of the project with 20% (twenty percent) in accordance with the share of Turkey and 80% (eighty percent) in accordance with the share of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ilham Aliyev, and Georgy Margvelashvili officially met in the city of Kars in Eastern Turkey to lay the foundation of the pipeline on 17 March 2015. The construction of the gas pipeline began in 2015 and completed in June 2018. On 21 November 2018, the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) joined the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) at the Turkish-Greek border near Meric River. Through the TAP, the Azerbaijani gas will be transported to Europe from the Shah Deniz field. ==Military relations==

Military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey first emerged in 1992, with an agreement signed between the two governments on military education and weapon equipment and deals to help strengthen the bond between the two nations. In June 2010, Azerbaijani military company Azersimtel announced that it had reached an agreement with the Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) on launching a joint military facility. Azerbaijani Defense Minister Colonel General Zakir Hasanov announced that in 2021 the Azerbaijani Armed Forces will take the Turkish military as a model and will be organized accordingly. Military cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan evolved into a very high-level cooperation after the 2020 Karabakh war. The two armed forces adopted a common approach in terms of weapons, tactics, and intelligence. During this period, the Azerbaijani army entered a transition phase from a Soviet-style structure to NATO standards. The two armies later held a joint exercise on the Iranian border. While serving in the Turkish Armed Forces with the rank of Lieutenant General, Bahtiyar Ersay was transferred to the Azerbaijani Army on 15 December 2022 and was appointed as an advisor to the Azerbaijani Minister of Defense. Until this date, Ersay served as the commander of the 7th Corps based in Diyarbakır in the Turkish Armed Forces. It was the first time in the history of the Turkish Armed Forces that an active-duty Turkish general was transferred to another army. Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, July 2025 A war between Azerbaijan and neighbouring Armenia broke out shortly after the parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous oblast in Azerbaijan, voted to unify the region with Armenia on 20 February 1988. The Armenian demand to unify Karabakh with Armenia, which proliferated in the late 1980s, began in a relatively peaceful manner; however, as the Soviet Union's disintegration neared, the dispute gradually grew into a violent conflict between the ethnic groups in Nagorno-Karabakh, resulting in ethnic cleansing by all sides. On 10 August 2020, six Turkish F-16s from the Turkish Air Force traveled from Turkey to Azerbaijan to participate in the TurAz Qartali-2020 exercise. Some news sources determined through satellite images that these planes did not leave Azerbaijan when the Second Karabakh War began and remained at Ganja airport. Azerbaijani President Aliyev confirmed that the planes were in the country but stated that they did not participate in the conflict. In contrast, Aliyev said, "In the event of an external attack on Azerbaijan, you will see Turkish planes in the sky." Armenia claimed that a SU-25 fighter jet from its air force was shot down by Turkish F-16s, but Turkey and Azerbaijan denied this. Military Base The Azerbaijani military doctrine adopted in 2010 allows for foreign military bases in Azerbaijan, and that action opened the way to speculation that Turkey could quarter its troops in the Nakhchivan region, an Azerbaijani exclave surrounded by Armenia and Turkey. Azerbaijan maintains a base in Nakhchivan that has received heavy Turkish support in the past, but no official information is available about the current scope of military cooperation between the two countries in the exclave. ==High-level visits==

On 11 August 2020, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov paid his first visit to Turkey after being appointed for the position of Azerbaijan's new foreign minister. ==Resident diplomatic missions==

• Azerbaijan has an embassy in Ankara and consulates-general in Istanbul and Kars and a consular mission in Iğdır. • Turkey has an embassy in Baku and consulates-general in Nakhchivan and Ganja. ==See also==