Karabakh victory will lead to lasting peace with constructive attitudes of leaders: Turkish president

ISTANBUL

Azerbaijan's victory in Karabakh will lead to lasting peace with constructive attitudes of Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, said the Turkish president on Saturday, adding that Ankara will do what is necessary.

Ankara is "hopeful" and "optimistic" about the lasting peace, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a ceremony in Baku marking the fifth anniversary of Azerbaijan's Victory Day.

Erdogan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif together attended the ceremony.

The Turkish president also expressed appreciation of Aliyev's efforts to establish lasting peace, adding that Türkiye also follows "with satisfaction" the "bold steps" taken by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on this path.

Ankara sees Baku's victory not as an end, but as a milestone on the road to lasting peace in the Caucasus, he added.

Erdogan said Azerbaijan's Karabakh victory ended a "major injustice" and opened a new era in the region, shifting geopolitical balances across Asia and Europe.

Every step taken by the Azerbaijani Army in Karabakh for independence is "written in golden letters" in the Turkic world history, he added.

Earlier, Erdogan arrived in Azerbaijan to attend a ceremony in Baku marking the fifth anniversary of Azerbaijan's Victory Day.

Most of the Karabakh region, which had been under Armenian occupation for nearly three decades, was liberated by Azerbaijan during a 44-day war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement and also opened the door to normalization with Yerevan.

On Nov. 8, the Azerbaijani army liberated the city of Shusha, which was later declared as Victory Day by a presidential decree.

Initially, Victory Day was to be celebrated on Nov. 10, the day of the end of the Second Karabakh War, but this was later changed due to coinciding with the anniversary of the passing of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Türkiye.

Türkiye-Azerbaijan cooperation

Erdogan said that Ankara-Baku ties are strengthening every day with strategic projects, citing the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli project, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline, the Shah Deniz, TANAP, and the Igdir-Nakhchivan Natural Gas Pipeline projects as the tangible fruits of bilateral cooperation.

He expressed hope that the new routes to be established in the Caucasus will increase transportation and energy transmission opportunities.

"We must develop the Trans-Caspian East-West Central Corridor through investments that will benefit all our brothers in the region," Erdogan said.

Türkiye and Azerbaijan also continues solidarity within the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), he said.

Stressing that Ankara's solidarity with Baku will also gain momentum during Azerbaijan's ongoing rotating presidency in the OTS, the Turkish president also hailed a UNESCO decision on Monday to designate Dec. 15 as World Turkic Language Family Day for the promotion of a common language, culture and documentary heritage of Turkic-speaking states.