Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova has had a meeting with Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye Numan Kurtulmuş in the course of her current official visit to that country.

There was a tête-à-tête first about the relations between the friendly sibling countries and their parliaments.

The Azerbaijani delegation and Turkish officials joined the meeting afterwards.

Numan Kurtulmuş greeted the Head of the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan with great cordiality before expressing satisfaction with the present high level of the bilateral relations and telling of his certainty that the visit of Sahiba Gafarova was going to take those relations further along the path of progress.

The strategic alliance of Azerbaijan and Türkiye advances continuously; our countries act together to address many issues, according to the GNAT Chairman. Our co-operation and interaction have brought the region’s existing problems to their solution stage. This co-operation is considerably important for the maintenance of peace and stability in the South Caucasus, in the opinion of Numan Kurtulmuş.

Türkiye is by Azerbaijan’s side whatever the platform; as regards the former conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it was resolved thanks to the will power and strength of our country, Numan Kurtulmuş said to that. Azerbaijan had restored both the integrity of her territory and justice, he added. The OSCE Minsk Group had remained inactive for long years; it had done nothing to solve the erstwhile problem. Now, then, there are countries and some lobbyist circles that are attempting to obstruct Azerbaijan’s just struggle, Mr Kurtulmuş said before expressing a confidence that Azerbaijan would prevail diplomatically as well.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova thanked for the generous hospitality extended to the parliamentary delegation of Azerbaijan. She said then that the high-level fraternity and friendship of Türkiye and Azerbaijan are rooted in the shared historical, language, religious and moral values of our peoples. The personal friendship and brotherhood of the Heads of State as well as their political will and resolve have made certain that, by today, the comprehensive relations have progressed in line with the one nation – two states principles and reached their summit point, that is, an alliance. The bilateral Shusha Declaration had elevated the Azerbaijani-Turkish relations to a new level completely, Sahiba Gafarova emphasised.

Azerbaijan and Türkiye demonstrate solidarity and mutual support across all issues; their share their joy and grief, and they lend each other a shoulder in times of need. Having said that, Sahiba Gafarov recalled the open and unambiguous political and moral support that Türkiye had given Azerbaijan, be it from the very first minutes of Garabagh War II or at the time of the Azerbaijani Army’s anti-terrorist measures earlier this year. The brotherly Türkiye, the people and the state, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at their head, have stood for Azerbaijan and her cause. The unity and solidarity of the two countries, their joint activities and the large-scale projects they are implementing in concert are contributing to stability, security and co-operation, both regionally and internationally.

Sahiba Gafarova remarked as the conversation went further that 2023 was rich in historical jubilees for both Azerbaijan and Türkiye. The centenary of the Azerbaijanis’ National Leader, creator of the independent Azerbaijani State, prominent politician and statesman Heydar Aliyev is celebrated to high standards this year. On the other hand, this year is also the 100^th since the inception of the Republic of Türkiye. This is the celebration of not Türkiye alone but also of the whole Turkic World, according to Sahiba Gafarova.

The brotherly Türkiye has negotiated a path of comprehensive political, economic, military, technological and otherwise progress, made remarkable achievements, won a serious international reputation, became a global-level centre of power and turned into a state that has a voice of its own. All that has been achieved over the 100 years past but especially under the guidance of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the past years.

The two parliament speakers shared their satisfaction with also the high standards set by the bilateral inter-legislature relations, with Sahiba Gafarova remarking that that was her second official visit to the fraternal state in her current position and that, once elected to helm the GNAT, Numan Kurtulmuş too paid his first ever official foreign visit to Azerbaijan. That was in July this year. Reciprocal visits and meetings are the most vivid sign of the two sides’ shared intention to take their inter-parliamentary links further, it was said.

There are many parliamentary delegation visits going in both directions, there is the joint work done in inter-parliamentary institutions and there is the co-ordination and mutual support as characteristic features of the on-going interaction. Stressing in this regard the significance of the Milli Majlis-GNAT Co-operation Treaty as an instrument ingraining our alliance also in the parliamentarian dimension, Sahiba Gafarova mentioned the fruitfulness of the trilateral format co-operation to match that of the bilateral interaction.

Co-ordination and mutual backing of our delegations to inter-parliamentary organisations make a tremendous component of the inter-legislature relations, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova continued. She said with regret that we are witnesses to information about Azerbaijan and Türkiye that is rather departed from the reality being spread in some organisations as well as those organisations’ biased and lopsided attitude to our countries. The patrons of Armenia in the West put accusations based on Armenian lies to Azerbaijan. The traces of those circles’ efforts are found in a number of anti-Azerbaijani resolutions passed by several inter-parliamentary entities and national parliaments. Meanwhile, the same entities and parliaments never once in all those bygone years reacted to 30 years of Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan’s lands, more than a million of our compatriots having faced the ethnic cleansing policy unleashed by Armenia and having been evicted from their native lands, nor to the total destruction of our historical, cultural and religious heritage, of our towns and villages by Armenia, Sahiba Gafarova remarked. With that, the Speaker of the Milli Majlis said she deems it necessary to take joint steps against such deplorable campaigns. She finds it as important to intensify regular meetings and consultations of our delegations on the eve of sessions of the inter-parliamentary organisations and to step up contacts with the delegations of the countries that are friendly to ours.

The two legislature leaders agreed that making contacts between the inter-parliamentary friendship groups stronger yet was a dramatic aspect of co-operation between the legislative assemblies of Azerbaijan and Türkiye. The fruitful joint activities under the aegis of the TÜRKPA are as tremendously important, they then said.

According to Sahiba Gafarova, more robust co-operation between specialised parliamentary committees could result in positive upshots for co-operation in general inasmuch as reinforcing it is concerned. This is why the visit of the delegation of the Milli Majlis Staff to Türkiye and of the GNAT Secretary General’s Office to Azerbaijan are so commendable.

Mr Kurtulmuş was told about the current situation in our region and that Azerbaijan had restored the wholeness of her territory and her sovereignty already. As she was telling the colleague of Azerbaijan’s anti-terrorist measures, Mrs Gafarova made a point of saying that they had been designed to eliminate the biggest obstacle to attaining peace, security and stability in the region, namely, the aggressive separatism. Besides, they aimed to remove Armenian armed units from our territories and to put paid to the very existence of the separatist regime. Neither the civil populate nor civil facilities were targeted in any manner whatsoever. There is no fact to the contrary, according to the speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament. Our Government is continuing successfully the efforts to reintegrate in the Azerbaijani society the Armenian residents of the Garabagh Region of the Republic of Azerbaijan and to address the same region’s social, humanitarian, economic and infrastructural issues.

The conversation continued; other topics of shared interest were discussed as well. 

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis