Azerbaijani president congratulates Türkiye’s Erdogan over elections

By Ruslan Rehimov and Bahtiyar Abdulkerimov

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AA) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev congratulated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over Sunday's parliamentary and presidential elections.

The People's Alliance, led by Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AK) Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), are poised to secure a majority of seats in the Turkish parliament after Sunday's presidential and parliamentary elections, according to unofficial results.

In a phone call, Aliyev told Erdogan that Türkiye has made "tremendous progress under the leadership of Erdogan," the Azerbaijani presidency said in a statement.

"As a manifestation of this, the brotherly Turkish people have also shown trust in their leader in these elections," the statement added.

Erdogan thanked Aliyev for his attention and congratulations.

The leaders also underlined that "friendly and brotherly relations between the two countries are eternal and unbreakable."

According to unofficial results, the AK Party garnered 35% of the votes, while the MHP gained over 10%, and the New Welfare Party (Yeniden Refah), which joined the alliance recently, got nearly 3% of the votes.

The main opposition Nation's Alliance, on the other hand, gained 35% of all votes, getting 213 seats in the parliament, while another opposition bloc, the Labor and Freedom Alliance, got over 10.5% of votes to get 66 seats in parliament.

The vote count is still continuing.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar