Turkish FM meets Azerbaijani and Turkish students in US

By Safvan Allahverdi

WASHINGTON (AA) - The relationship between Turkey and Azerbaijan continues to gain strength, Turkey's top diplomat said Wednesday.

Addressing Turkish and Azerbaijani students at a panel, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said both countries represent each other’s interests.

"We are two governments but one community, at times we act like one government," he said at the event jointly organized by the Turkish-American National Steering Committee (TASC) and Azerbaijan Trade and Cultural Center in Washington,

He stressed that joint projects between Turkey and Azerbaijan such as the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway strengthened commercial relations between the two countries.

The 826-kilometer (513 miles) BTK railway project linking Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia entered service in 2017.

TANAP, the largest section of the Southern Gas Corridor supply route from Azerbaijan to Turkey and onto Europe through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, began operation on July 1, 2018.

Cavusoglu added that trilateral coordination between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran contributed to the development and stability of the region.