Azerbaijan–Turkey relations

It gives me a great pleasure to congratulate the participants of the 7th Summit of the Turkic Council, the public of the Turkic world with the significant date - the 10th anniversary of adoption of the Nakhchivan Agreement on the Establishment of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States.

Member states of the Turkic Council took a historic step in May in Kazakhstan by establishing the Joint Turkic Chambers of Commerce and Industry (TCCI) to institutionalize existing economic cooperation. The TCCI held its first-ever General Assembly meeting in İstanbul on July 31 where it elected its first president, TOBB Chairman Rıfat Hisarcıkoğlu.

The Turkic Council held a senior officials meeting at the level of deputy foreign ministers in Istanbul on Aug. 2, where they discussed opening of a representation office in Hungary.

The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project will enter into service as of June 12, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak said on May 11.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım on March 14 said the foreign ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran will meet in Baku to evaluate regional developments and discuss “regional cooperation.”

Azerbaijan aims to finalize the Southern Gas Corridor by 2020, Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev has said.

The Southern Gas Corridor includes the South Caucasus Pipeline, Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).      

Banks are arranging USD 1B in financing for, a key offshore gas field project in Azerbaijan seen as crucial for Europe's energy security, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has said.

Turkey and Azerbaijan began on Tuesday the construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP).

Turkish President Recep Erdogan and his Azerbaijani and Georgian counterparts Ilham Aliyev and Giorgi Margvelashvili attended the inauguration ceremony in Turkey's Kars region.

Turkey and Azerbaijan will on Tuesday formally begin construction on a new gas pipeline costing over $10 billion which will pump gas from the vast Azerbaijani Shah Deniz 2 field across Anatolia to Turkish and EU consumers.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu has condemned Khojaly Massacre, speaking in Baku a day before the 23th anniversary of the incident, while a Turkish parliamentary committee has urged for the trial of those responsible for the incident, which caused the death of more than 600 ethnic Azerbaijanis.