Joint press statements of Ilham Aliyev and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Statement by President Ilham Aliyev

- Dear Mr Prime Minister, dear brother.

Distinguished guests.

First of all, my dear brother, I once again warmly welcome you in Azerbaijan. Welcome to Azerbaijan. This is your 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.

Taking this opportunity, I sincerely congratulate your party on its big victory in the municipal elections. This victory is another high evaluation of your 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.

We perceive Turkey's successes as own successes. We are proud of all successes and are 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. The talks and conversations we conducted during today's visit reaffirm our unity. We are allies in the political sphere. Today in the world there are no other countries 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 dollars of Azerbaijani investments will be made in the Turkish economy. This is the largest investment we have made abroad.

There are energy projects that connect us. 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.

Joint activities are being carried out in other areas. The transport and energy corridors that bind us together will greatly benefit our people and neighbours.

At the same time, today we had an exchange of views on cooperation in the military sphere. In this area, there are also very good opportunities, prospects and results. Naturally, today we 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.

In short, today's visit is another excellent step for the development of our bilateral relations.

I am very glad to meet with my friend and brother again. Once again I wish you and the Turkish people happiness and new successes. Welcome once again.

Statement by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

- Thank you, Mr President, distinguished representatives of the media, ladies and gentlemen.

First of all, I express my satisfaction that after the 30 March municipal elections, I traditionally pay my first visit to Azerbaijan. We paid this visit with our friends - ministers and deputies, and today we had the 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 dollars, are getting stronger day by day. As Mr President noted earlier, the goals of Azerbaijani investments in Turkey are really huge. The most significant among them is, of course, 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, God willing, 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.

Along with this, as Mr President noted, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad and the Shah Deniz-Erzurum project - all these are really the most important investments that show how strong the bonds between Azerbaijan and Turkey are.

Unity and solidarity between us in the political, military, cultural, economic and trade fields - in all these fields - are a perfect example showing the high level of our 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.

Our solidarity and our brotherhood will continue thereafter with the same determination. The parties have no concern on this issue. 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.

Our ministers discussed among themselves what they can do together in areas like energy and defence industries. If you noticed, recently the number of high-level visits between Turkey and Azerbaijan has begun to grow. The number of meetings between the presidents, the prime ministers and ministers continues to grow every day. All this will certainly continue in the future. We, as always, are decisive in this matter.

Of course, today we had the opportunity to discuss the Karabakh issue once again. We discussed it 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. Once again, I want those who watch us sitting in front of TV screens to know about it. I am saying this from this point of view.

I express my deep appreciation for the hospitality extended to us, in particular to representatives of the media. Thank you.