Dilara Hamit
15 June 2023•Update: 16 June 2023
ANKARA
An international conference on the strategic alliance between Azerbaijan and Türkiye, dedicated to the second anniversary of the Shusha Declaration, was held in Azerbaijan on Thursday.
The conference, titled Azerbaijan-Türkiye Strategic Alliance: From Liberation to Victory, was organized by Türkiye’s Justice and Development (AK) Party and the New Azerbaijan Party in Shusha, the symbolic city of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region.
The event was attended by Binali Yildirim, deputy chairman of the AK Party, and Tahir Budagov, vice chairman of YAP, along with members of parliament, academics, and experts.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated Azerbaijan on its National Salvation Day, which is marked on June 15.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also congratulated the National Salvation Day of Azerbaijan and the second anniversary of the Shusha Declaration.
"Today is both the National Salvation Day of dear Azerbaijan and the anniversary of the Shusha Declaration, which further strengthens our natural alliance," Fidan said on Twitter.
Azerbaijan celebrates the annual day to mark the events when their national leader, Haydar Aliyev, got elected as chairman of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan in 1993 and succeeded in preventing a civil war in the country.
In 1997, Azerbaijani lawmakers put forward an initiative to designate June 15 Azerbaijan's National Salvation Day and the parliament approved the proposal.
In 2020, thanks to efforts by Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan was restored and the National Salvation Day started being celebrated in territories previously occupied by Armenia.
Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from Armenian occupation in the fall of 2020 during 44 days of fighting.
A Russian-brokered peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.
