The parliamentary delegation led by Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova, in Turkey on an official visit currently, went to the Heydar Aliyev Park in Ankara to put a wreath at the monument of the National Leader there and to pay respects to his memory on 11 September.

Then, the Azerbaijani MPs arrived at the Anitkabir, the mausoleum of the Turkish Republic’s Founding Father Mustafa Kamal Ataturk. A wreath was put in front of the mausoleum on behalf of Mrs Gafarova while she herself left a heartfelt entry in the Anitkabir memorial book.

The delegation met with Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Mustafa Sentop on the same day.

After welcoming the guests warmly, Mr Sentop mentioned the brotherhood of the two sides that have for centuries been connected with ties of friendship and kinship. It is one nation living in two states, Mr Sentop added, before saying, ‘The grievances of Azerbaijan are also our grievances and the joys of Azerbaijan are also our joys.’

Speaking then about the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Highland Garabagh, Mr Sentop underlined Armenia posing threats not only to Azerbaijan but the whole region, too. He cited President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey as having said, ‘we are always by Azerbaijan’s side and we are prepared to extend support to Azerbaijan in any matter.’ From this viewpoint, Turkey is invariably standing by Azerbaijan in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Highland Garabagh as well.

The GNAT Chair went further to recall the words that President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan had uttered whilst accepting the credentials of the then inbound ambassador of Greece to Azerbaijan. Those words sounded bright for the sore hearts of the 83 million Turks, Mr Sentop emphasised as he was thanking the Azerbaijani side especially for its support to Turkey in the case with Greece.

Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova thanked Mr Sentop for the hearty welcome and witnessed her pleasure with that Turkey was the first country for her to visit officially as a parliament speaker.

‘There is a splendid tradition established between our countries whereby both states’ high-ranking dignitaries make their first official abroad trips to the brotherly countries on entering office. I, too, have paid my first official abroad visit to Turkey, a friendly state, in keeping with this wonderful custom. It is a very commendable wont and I am certain that the two brotherly countries will keep it up,’ Mrs Gafarova said.

She then mentioned with regret that she could not have paid the visit earlier due to the coronavirus pandemic, and thanked the Turkish Republic for the very effective action undertaken against this new adversity.

As for the Azerbaijani-Turkish relations, Mrs Gafarova described them as being unparalleled in the global system of political connections, adding that they were rooted in the true brotherhood spirit that bounds our nations. The current relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey are a strategic partnership by nature, in her opinion.

She proceeded to accentuate brotherly parliamentarism as the distinguishing feature of the relationship between the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. This specificity is perfectly in the spirit of the existing bilateral ties and this brotherhood is manifest in the bipartite format as well as in the collaboration that the two countries further under the auspices of the international organisations, Mrs Gafarova continued.

Both parliaments have in action and interaction the friendship groups; the Azerbaijani group is led by Ahliman Amiraslanov successfully while the Turkish group is helmed by Samil Ayrim just as illustriously. The president of the Azerbaijan Republic Mr Ilham Aliyev bestowed the ‘Friendship’ Order on Samil bey for his achievements in the furtherance of the brotherly ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

It is equally as important to make the two-way visits of both the parliament leaders and the members of the two friendship groups more frequent because more intensive contacts between the groups would contribute materially to the broadening of the interstate relations, according to Mrs Gafarova.

The Chair of the Milli Majlis once again expressed profound gratitude to the Turkish politicians and political parties for the joint statement of the four parties in the GNAT (the JDP, the RPP, the NMP and the Good Party) about the borderline provocation of Armenia against Azerbaijan’s Tovuz Province on 12 July.

There are many similarities in the history of our people that have established two states, which is why we should be building our future in such a way as to preserve this affinity, to Mrs Gafarova’s mind. The words that the president of Azerbaijan had said to the new ambassador of Greece to our country represent wholly the standpoint of the entire Azerbaijan, she stressed.

‘As you have said, there are the very close ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey; as many as 249 documents concerned with the areas as diverse as education to energy projects have been signed to date. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line and the TAP and TANAP projects matter not only to our countries but to the region at large. The fact that we have carried them into life together signifies our unity, brotherhood and amity. I suppose we ought to develop these relations further.’

There also was an exchange of opinions about the matters of interest to both sides during the meeting.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis