Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid his first foreign visit to Azerbaijan after the recent municipal elections, which ended with his party's decisive victory.

Erdogan arrived in Baku with a working visit on April 4 to discuss the expansion of relation in various fields with Azerbaijani leadership.

President Ilham Aliyev and Erdogan held the one-on-one and expanded meetings to discuss bilateral relations.

During the one-on-one meeting, President Aliyev and Turkish Premier Erdogan praised the fraternal and friendly relations between the two countries in a range of fields, including politics, economy, energy and transport, AzerTag news agency reported.

The two sides hailed the visit of the Turkish Premier as important in terms of enhancing ties between the two countries.

Aliyev and Erdogan expressed confidence that Azerbaijan-Turkey relations would continue to expand.

They also held an expanded meeting, attended by delegations from two countries.

After an expanded meeting, Aliyev and Erdogan held a joint press conference.

Welcoming Turkish Premier, President Aliyev emphasized that this is his first visit after the municipal elections.

"We are very pleased that your first visit is to Azerbaijan. I also remember that I paid my first foreign visit after the presidential election last year to fraternal Turkey. This tradition lives, will live and shows the high level of Turkish-Azerbaijani relations again," Aliyev said.

Aliyev congratulated Erdogan's party on its big victory in the municipal elections, noting this victory is another high evaluation of his work by the Turkish people.

"Under your leadership, Turkey has gone a long and glorious way in recent years. The economic, political and industrial potential of Turkey has grown considerably. Today, Turkey is a member of G20. The financial and economic crisis that gripped the world a few years ago has had no effect on Turkey, because Turkey has a leader like you. There is a wise leader who loves and is attached to his people, and he leads Turkey on this way," Aliyev said.

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan is proud of Turkey's all successes and is very pleased that today Turkish-Azerbaijani relations are experiencing a period of dynamic development.

"We, as friends and brothers, are working together in all areas. Today, there are no other countries in the world that are as close to each other as Turkey and Azerbaijan. We implement major projects in the economic sphere. Mutual investments are being made successfully, and Azerbaijani investments are being made in Turkey and Turkish in Azerbaijan. This process continues successfully. In the next 7-8 years, about $20 billion of Azerbaijani investments will be made in the Turkish economy. This is the largest investment we have made abroad," Aliyev noted.

He said there are energy projects that connect the two countries. "We are implementing these projects together. Turkey and Azerbaijan are demonstrating their leading role in the implementation of these projects. These projects have already gone beyond the regional framework and become worldwide projects. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum and TANAP projects have changed the world's energy map," Aliyev stressed.

He also went on to say that today Azerbaijan and Turkey had an exchange of views on cooperation in the military sphere, noting very good opportunities, prospects and results in this area.

Aliyev further said the two sides also discussed the issue of settling the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"We are grateful to the Turkish government for its constant attention to us and for always supporting us in the right cause of Azerbaijan. As you know, the internationally-recognized territorial integrity of our country has been broken by Armenia for many years, and our lands are under occupation. This occupation and injustice are continuing. This must end. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be restored and our compatriots affected by the occupation must return to their native land. I am sure that it will be so. To do this, we must and will become even stronger," Aliyev emphasized.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

Furthermore, Aliyev noted that this visit is another excellent step for the development of bilateral relations the two countries.

In turn, Erdogan expressed satisfaction that after the 30 March municipal elections, he traditionally paid his first visit to Azerbaijan.

"We paid this visit with our friends - ministers and MPs, and we had an opportunity to discuss bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey and regional issues. As a result of these very meaningful discussions, the foundation of the future views of the two countries, the foreign trade turnover of which is approaching $15 billion, is getting stronger day by day," Erdogan said.

He said the Azerbaijani investments in Turkey are really huge, the most significant among them is the TANAP project.

"In connection with the work that began on the design of this project, a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers was adopted. In the coming months, steps will be taken, and I believe that when we achieve our goals related to TANAP in 2018, this international project will strengthen our brotherhood by many times," Erdogan said.

"The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad and the Shah Deniz-Erzurum project are really the most important investments that show how strong the bonds between Azerbaijan and Turkey are," he said.

Erdogan said unity and solidarity between the two countries in the political, military, cultural, economic and trade fields are a perfect example showing the high level of brotherhood.

"I believe that in the future we will be making very serious investments together. In particular, the investments, which we are making and will be making in the gas sector, the process that began earlier in Petkim in this regard and new investments in Petkim reflect the importance of these steps. At the one-on-one meeting, we had the opportunity to discuss it. At the meeting with the participation of delegations, we also had the opportunity to appreciate it," Erdogan said.

He went on to add that the ministers of the two countries had discussions on what they can do together in areas like energy and defense industries.

Erdogan also noted that the number of high-level visits between Azerbaijan and Turkey has begun to increase recently and will continue in the future.

He further said the parties also had the opportunity to discuss the Karabakh issue once again.

"We will continue to demonstrate the same strong position on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue as we have done so far. Concessions here cannot be a subject of discussion," Erdogan said.

Furthermore, Aliyev and Erdogan answered journalists' questions.

Answering a question about the registration process of the TANAP pipeline project Erdogan said the registration process has started as part of the TANAP pipeline project upon a decision by the cabinet of ministers.

"If we manage to complete this process, we will be able to lay the foundation of the pipeline by late 2014," Erdogan said. "We do not worry about this issue. Our main goal is preparing the ground so that bulldozers begin to work soon and TANAP route be laid in a short term. Of course, all these have been included in the project. But as soon as the pipe laying process starts, it would grab the international attentions," he noted.

The Azerbaijani president, in turn, said Turkey and Azerbaijan are the founders and leaders of the TANAP project.

"Will and determination of the Turkish and the Azerbaijani leadership have played the biggest role in this project implementation. As a result of this project implementation, our countries will be even more closely related to each other. Our economic and political opportunities will be even more increased," Aliyev said.

"We will try to implement this project in a timely manner. In any case, everything is on schedule according to the provided information. I hope that we together with my dear brother will celebrate the opening of this project in 2018," Aliyev said.

TANAP project envisages gas transportation from Shah Deniz field through Turkey to the border with Europe. The initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to hit 16 billion cubic meters per year.

About six billion cubic meters will be supplied to Turkey and the rest - to Europe. In the future, the pipeline can be expanded up to 31 billion cubic meters per year.

Turkey has 20 percent and Azerbaijan has 80 percent share at the TANAP project.

The meetings of the Azerbaijani and Turkish leaders are traditional, Aliyev further said.

"We meet several times a year. Last time we met four months ago, and we are meeting now. Our meeting can take place next month as well. We will meet in June. This is natural - we are allies, friends, and brothers. Of course, our conversations cover a very broad scope. We discuss all issues frankly as friends and brothers. The most important thing is that here the Turkish and Azerbaijani parties are like minded in all areas," Aliyev said.

Aliyev underscored that Azerbaijan and Turkey do not, and will not allow anything to cause damage to the relations between the two countries.

"We are friends and brothers, brother leaders and our peoples are fraternal. This is how it is supposed to be. For our future successful development and strengthening of our positions in the world, the Turkish-Azerbaijani unity will continue, and it should continue," Aliyev said, adding that it is people's will and the belief of the Turkish and Azerbaijani leadership.

"We will protect each other in good and bad days. Real brothers must act this way and we are such brothers," Aliyev said.