Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova met on 4 November the inbound women deputies of the Great National Assembly of Turkey – Chair of the GNAT Commission for the Prevention and Monitoring of Violence against Women Öznur Çalık and her deputy Tuba Vural Çokal.

Welcoming the Turkish MPs, the Chair of the Milli Majlis told them that the Azerbaijani-Turkish friendship was rooted in the true brotherhood of our nations – the one that was shown the world vividly during the 44 days’ Patriotic War waged by Azerbaijan. The relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey have reached their zenith today, according to Sahiba Gafarova.

The two states have built the extremely close relations in keeping with the ‘one nation – two countries’ principles whereas the personal friendship binding the heads of the states Mr Ilham Aliyev and Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan factored immensely in reaching the highest ebb of the interaction, the Chair of the Milli Majlis was saying.

The Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan and the Great National Assembly of Turkey are acting in the spirit of the ties between the two nations and are furthering their own relations successfully. This manifests itself in bilateral co-operation as well as the collaboration going on under the umbrellas of international organisations, Mrs Gafarova went on. The friendship groups active in both legislatures are doing the work worthy of the highest praise, she added.

It is crucial to make certain there are more frequent two-way visits and that the two legislatures meet more often because intensifying such contacts means contributing to further deepening of the links between the two countries across the board, in the opinion of Sahiba Gafarova.

The visitors were then made aware of the policy on women pursued in Azerbaijan, women’s representation in the parliament and what is being done to maintain gender equality as well as to protect women’s rights. Azerbaijan is the first country in the East to have given women the suffrage, and that was done back at the dawn of the twentieth century – rather earlier than in many European countries, too, Mrs Gafarova emphasised.

The women of Azerbaijan occupy leading positions in state administration as well as in various walks of life. At the same time, Azerbaijan’s First Vice President Mrs Mehriban Aliyeva, her activities and the tremendous work she is doing in the country and beyond set a fine example for every woman to follow.

Chair of the GNAT Commission for the Prevention and Monitoring of Violence against Women Öznur Çalık, in turn, described Turkey and Azerbaijan as having the bonds of friendship and fraternity dating back over centuries. It is one nation living in two states, Ms Çalık pointed out, adding, ‘We have always considered each other’s toil and joy our toil and joy’.

The GNAT member proceeded to speak of Turkey’s policy on women, protection of women’s rights, gender equality, women’s role in the society and representation in the Turkish Parliament. She supplied the Chair of the Milli Majlis with abundant information about her country’s state course regarding all those topicalities.

That was followed by an exchange of opinions about other subjects of shared interest.

It should be mentioned that the Milli Majlis chairs Hijran Huseynova and Ganira Pashayeva as well as the Azerbaijani MP Malahat Ibrahimghizi were taking part in the meeting.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis