ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev failed to attend a regional summit hosted by Turkey on Friday, fueling speculation about a rift between the once-close allies.
Turkey and Azerbaijan are traditional allies with deep cultural and ethnic ties and often describe themselves as being “one nation, two states.” But tensions have emerged recently following criticism in Turkey about Azerbaijan’s decision to ban the wearing of hijabs in schools
and over Baku’s growing ties with Israel.
Whether Aliyev would participate in the summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Ankara was being watched for an indication of the state of the relationship.
Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov represented Azerbaijan at the meeting and Azerbaijani media attributed Aliyev’s absence to previously scheduled engagements. The organization groups Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
But Farman Aydin, an analyst writing in Azerbaijan’s pro-government Azernews media outlet, pointed at an increasingly hostile campaign against Azerbaijan.
“For Azerbaijanis, the hostility is especially painful because it comes from a country regarded as a close ally,” he wrote.
He said Aliyev’s decision not to attend the summit "can equally be understood as a diplomatic signal that even the closest partnerships require mutual respect.”
The rift appeared after social media users in Turkey and some members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented ruling party criticized Baku’s decision in September to ban girls and teachers wearing Islamic covering in schools.
Small-scale protests were also staged outside Azerbaijan’s diplomatic missions in Turkey, where Erdogan’s government overturned similar hijab bans after coming to power in 2003.
Adding to the tensions, many in Turkey — a vocal critic of Israel’s military actions in the Middle East — have also questioned Azerbaijan’s close ties to Israel.
The criticism drew anger in energy-rich Azerbaijan which complained of interference in its internal affairs even though Turkey's government never made an official statement about the Azerbaijani hijab ban.
Azerbaijan banned more than 30 Turkish nationals from traveling to the country over their criticism of the hijab ban, including the leader of a small, Islamic-leaning opposition party.
In an effort to ease tensions, Erdogan called Aliyev earlier this week to invite him to the summit personally. He also fired an aide, Oktay Saral, reportedly bowing to a demand from the Azerbaijani president, according to Cumhuriyet newspaper and other media.
In his opening speech to the summit, Erdogan said there can be no rift within the Turkic-speaking countries.
“There is no room for division, discord or dispute in the family portrait of the Turkic world,” Erdogan said. “We are all one, we are together. God willing, we are brothers from eternity to eternity.”
Turkey’s ties with Azerbaijan have repercussions on its efforts to normalize ties with neighboring Armenia, including the reopening of their joint border that would increase trade and revive local economies on both sides of the frontier.
Turkey closed the border in the 1990s in support of Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia, and has tied normalization with Armenia to progress in reconciliation efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
