Turkish, Azerbaijani presidents meet in Nakhchivan for talks

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Azerbaijan's autonomous Nakhchivan exclave upon the invitation of his counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

Aliyev welcomed Erdogan on Monday with an official ceremony before holding one-on-one talks to discuss bilateral relations, as well as regional and global issues, particularly the recent developments in Karabakh. They will later hold a joint news conference.

The leaders will also attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Igdir-Nakhchivan natural gas pipeline and inaugurate the modernised Nakhchivan military complex.

Ankara and Baku agreed in 2020, in a memorandum of understanding, to supply natural gas from Türkiye to Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

The new 85-kilometre gas pipeline will run from Türkiye's eastern province of Igdir to Sederek in western Azerbaijan, with an annual capacity of 500 million cubic metres (mcm) and a daily capacity of 1.5 mcm.

The project will be realised through a partnership between Türkiye's crude oil and natural gas pipeline trading company BOTAS and Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR.

'Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory'

Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, asserting that the imposition of any other status for the region would never be accepted.

"We have supported the negotiation process between Azerbaijan and Armenia from the beginning. However, we see that Armenia has not fully seized this historic opportunity," Erdogan said in his address at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York last week.

He expressed Türkiye's expectation that Armenia fulfil its commitments, especially those related to the opening of the Zangezur corridor, a key planned unimpeded road through Armenian territory connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave.

"As everyone now accepts, Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory. The imposition of any other status will never be accepted," Erdogan underlined, adding that the primary goal should now be peaceful coexistence for all, including Armenians, on Azerbaijani territory.

Türkiye supports Azerbaijan's steps to preserve its territorial integrity, he said.

Last week, Azerbaijan launched "counter-terrorism measures" in Karabakh to uphold provisions outlined in a November 2020 trilateral peace agreement it signed with Russia and Armenia following 44 days of clashes with Yerevan.