As we reported earlier, the Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation led by Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova have been in Turkey on an official visit since 10 September. This is Mrs Gafarova’s first abroad visit in the role of the speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan.

The delegation is made up of the Leader of the Milli Majlis Working Group for Interparliamentary Connections with Turkey Ahliman Amiraslanov, Committee Chairman Ziyafet Asgarov, the MPs Sevil Mikayilova, Fazil Mustafa, Elshan Musayev and Tural Ganjaliyev, Chief of the Parliament’s Staff Safa Mirzayev and other officials.

Deputy Chair of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Süreyya Sadi Bilgiç and other formal officers of the host side welcomed our delegation at the Ankara Esenboğa Airport.

On the day of arrival the delegation of Mrs Gafarova had a meeting with Turkey’s Minister of Trade Ruhsar Pekcan who expressed her pleasure at the opportunity to welcome the visitors and told them that the volume of trade between the two countries had generated US$4.4 bn during 2019. That, however, is short of the true potentials of the sides; consequently, there is a set task to increase the trade further, she pointed out. The Turkish side are aiming to sign a free trade accord with Azerbaijan, too, Mrs Pekcan added.

The difficulties with goods transits on the Turkey-Central Asia-Iran direction posed by the pandemic have only added to the importance of the Georgia-Azerbaijan-the Caspian route, the Turkish Minister mentioned.

While talking of promotion of women’s doing business, Mrs Pekcan told the guests of the relevant work under way in Turkey – including the launch of a new women’s co-operatives’ strengthening programme and the current projects devised to give women a higher profile in the business life of the country. ‘If the woman gets stronger, so do the family and the economy,’ she emphasised.

Madame Minister brought up the subject of Turkey’s connections with Nakhchivan. According to her, Nakhchivan’s well-being is Turkey’s pledge to Azerbaijan, so, special attention is paid to furthering the trade links with that province. Generally speaking, the Turkish side are satisfied with the business co-operation with Azerbaijan and trust that in time the two parties will attain yet greater volumes of bilateral trade.

Thanking for the warm welcome, Mrs Gafarova told Mrs Pekcan that that was her first official visit and, since Azerbaijan considers Turkey a country that is germane to it, all the Azerbaijani officials holding the most elevated positions schedule their first abroad trips to nowhere else but that country. The same is true of the Turkish side, either. We are one nation living in two states; those words by the great leader Heydar Aliyev truly tell the very core of the matter in point because we share the same language, religion, culture and history. At the same time, Mrs Gafarova continued, our linguistic and cultural unity bodes for our ability to build a common future by committee.

As regards the economic ties between the two countries, Turkey and Azerbaijan are doing great deeds in the region – suffice to mention the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline ventures and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, the latter also connecting the Turkic-speaking states and being only comparable to the Great Silk Way, Mrs Gafarova said.

The current economic interaction sets high standards; for instance, the mutual volume of trade exceeded US$ 2 billion during the six months of this year and that was achieved despite the pandemic and all the spanners it had thrown in the works.

The Chair of the Milli Majlis went further to talk about the support to women in both Turkey and Azerbaijan, remarking then that a society in which the woman is free and educated would progress.

Other matters were touched upon during the conversation, too; besides, there was an exchange of opinions about diverse topics.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis