BAKU, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan’s parliament speaker Sahibe Gafarova on Monday received a delegation of the Turkish parliament's National Defense Committee headed by Hulusi Akar in Baku.
During the meeting, they discussed steps to improve inter-parliamentary relations and international and regional developments.
Gafarova said that they attach great importance to Türkiye’s support to Azerbaijan both during the Second Karabakh War and after the war.
Akar, Türkiye’s former defense minister who has also served as a chief of General Staff for the Turkish military, underlined the importance of further developing bilateral cooperation.
He added that the “hand of peace” extended by Azerbaijan should not be left unanswered by Armenia, and hoped a peace agreement would be signed between the two countries soon.
The Turkish delegation was also received by Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov.
Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia 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 most of the region during the war in the fall of 2020, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement, opening the door to normalization.
The Azerbaijani army initiated an anti-terrorism operation in Karabakh last September to establish constitutional order, after which illegal separatist forces in the region surrendered.
*Writing by Gozde Bayar
