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Turkey to further strengthen relations with Azerbaijan

11 August 2014 17:45 (UTC+04:00)
Turkey to further strengthen relations with Azerbaijan

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has heartily congratulated Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the occasion of his landslide victory in the presidential elections held on August 10.

He made a telephone call to Erdogan and wished him success in his high state activity for the prosperity and peace of the Turkish people.

Erdogan thanked for the attention and congratulations.

President Aliyev and Premiere Erdogan expressed confidence that friendly and fraternal relations between the two countries, which are based on strategic cooperation, will further successfully develop in all areas.

Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council said over 99 percent of the ballot boxes were opened and according to the preliminary data Erdogan won the presidential elections held on August 10 by gathering 51.65 percent of votes.

Erdogan is followed by Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu with 38.65 percent of votes and Salahaddin Demirtas with 9.79 percent of votes.

Commenting on the presidential election results in Turkey Ali Hasanov, Chief of the Department of Social and Political Affairs at Azerbaijan's Presidential Administration, said the strategic cooperation and partnership between Azerbaijan and Turkey as friendly and fraternal countries will continue in the future at the same level as before.

He congratulated the Turkish people with this choice.

"As always, this election also took place in a democratic and free atmosphere," he said. "The chairman of the Justice and Development Party Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the fair election. We congratulate Mr. Erdogan on his victory in the election as the president of the friendly and fraternal country. We wish him success in politics for the sake of Turkey's future."

Hasanov also noted the decision of the people is always the wisest one and it would be wrong to subjectively assess this decision.

"The Turkish people expressed their wise decision by voting," he added. "The strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Turkey as friendly and fraternal countries will continue at the same level as before. We wish that as before, newly elected President Erdogan this time to lead Turkey in the right direction into the future and to pay his first foreign visit to Azerbaijan."

Mazhar Bagli, member of the Council of the country's ruling Justice and Development Party, believes Turkey will even more strengthen its relations with Azerbaijan after the victory of Erdogan in the presidential elections.

He said Azerbaijan is one of the most important countries for Turkey.

"Azerbaijan's problems are Turkey's problems and Azerbaijan's success is Turkey's success," Bagli told Trend Agency on August 11.

Erdogan has repeatedly stated that he pays special attention to the Azerbaijani-Turkish relations.

Azerbaijan and Turkey's relations have always been strong due to a common culture and history and the mutual intelligibility of Turkish and Azerbaijani languages.

Turkey was the first country in the world to recognize Azerbaijan's independence in 1991 and has been a staunch supporter of Azerbaijan in its efforts to consolidate its independence, preserve its territorial integrity, and realize its economic potential that arises from the rich natural resources of the Caspian Sea.

The countries share a short 13 kilometer-border, with the Aras River separating Turkey from the Nakhchivan exclave.

Economic projects, jointly implemented by Azerbaijan and Turkey, are bringing these countries together and strengthening their cooperation. These two countries are connected by several important regional projects, including the Baku-Supsa, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipelines, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas line, and TANAP.

Azerbaijan and Turkey's economies and cooperation have reached a high level. SOCAR is one of the world's most well-established oil companies, active in Turkey since May 30, 2008. SOCAR is involved in a number of major investment projects in Turkey, including the construction of TANAP, Star refinery, and others.

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