UPDATE 2 - Azerbaijani president, Turkish foreign minister discuss relations with Armenia

UPDATES WITH INFO TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY, AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTER

By Esra Tekin and Serdar Dincel

ISTANBUL (AA) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed relations Friday with their common neighbor, Armenia, in a meeting in Shusha, the Azerbaijani Presidency said in a statement.

Turkish and Azerbaijani relations with the Caucasus nation of Armenia have long been strained, but recent years have seen signs of possible breakthroughs.

Citing this week’s meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan between Aliyev, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sherif, a Foreign Ministry statement underlined that such trilateral meetings will continue in the future.

“The importance was also highlighted of the 2021 Shusha Declaration, which forms the basis of the close relations between Azerbaijan and Türkiye, particularly in the city of Shusha itself,” the statement added, referring to the Azerbaijani city that was liberated in recent years from decades of Armenian occupation.

The statement added that the meeting expressed satisfaction with the successful development of fraternal, friendly and allied relations between the two countries in all areas, stressing the significance of unity and solidarity in the Turkic world.

Fidan also met his Azerbaijani counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov, during the day on the sidelines of the summit, the Turkish Foreign Ministry wrote on X.

”We had a beneficial exchange of views with brother Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on alliance, regional and international security issues,” Bayramov said X.

Fidan arrived Friday in Shusha to take part in a two-day informal summit of heads of state of the Organization of Turkic States.

Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz is representing the country at the summit, as Erdogan will be in Germany to attend Türkiye’s football match with the Netherlands in the 2024 EURO Championship.