Erdogan visits Azerbaijan in bid to ease rift between allies

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Azerbaijan on Sunday to celebrate Victory Day, aiming to mend a recent strained relationship between the two close regional allies. The tensions escalated in September when Azerbaijan revised school uniform regulations to ban additions deemed incompatible with secular education, effectively prohibiting Islamic headscarves.

This move contradicted Turkey's own more lenient policies on hijabs, causing protests and criticism within Erdogan's Islamist-rooted ruling party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Azerbaijan's President, Ilham Aliyev, and his ruling party, Yeni Azerbaijan, denounced Erdogan's comments, insisting that the restrictions were interference in Azerbaijan's internal affairs. In response, Azerbaijan expelled 31 Turkish nationals, including an opposition lawmaker and party leaders, over critical social media posts. Aliyev declined a personal invitation from Erdogan to attend a Turkic leaders summit in Ankara on October 30, sending Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov instead.

Erdogan arrived in Azerbaijan's Fizuli district, where Baku recaptured it from Armenian separatist forces in 2020. A guard of honor welcomed the Turkish leader at the local airport, accompanied by his wife. Erdogan expressed hope that the visit would lead to necessary steps to strengthen their relationship, emphasizing the unbreakable bonds of friendship and brotherhood between the two countries, founded on the principle of "One nation, two states."