Erdogan to visit Azerbaijan amid headscarf spat

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Azerbaijan on Sunday amid heightened tensions between the two allied states over a headscarf ban imposed in Azerbaijani schools in September.

Erdogan told journalists on Thursday that he would visit Azerbaijan to attend the country’s Victory Day celebrations on 8 November.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s decision to skip the Turkic States Summit last week indicated that Baku remains agitated by public criticism in Turkey over the ban, which prevented students and teachers wearing headscarves from entering primary and high schools.

The decision sparked protests and severe criticism on Turkish social media, with some Turkish officials joining the chorus.

Azerbaijan then asked Ankara to fire a Turkish presidential adviser, prosecute commentators who allegedly insulted Aliyev, and block access to social media accounts critical of Baku.

To encourage Aliyev’s participation in the summit and mend relations, Erdogan sacked the adviser, and legal steps targeting commentators followed. Yet Aliyev still did not attend the summit.

Erdogan told journalists on Thursday that it was now public knowledge that he had telephoned Aliyev and dispatched both the head of the National Intelligence Organisation and the foreign minister to Azerbaijan last month.

“Furthermore, ‘telephone diplomacy’ has been, and continues to be, conducted, both with Mr Ilham himself and between our respective spouses,” Erdogan said. “They, too, attach great importance to Victory Day on the 8th. I have always maintained that our relations with Azerbaijan extend far beyond conventional diplomatic ties.”

Erdogan said there was an “unbreakable bond between the two nations” rooted in a shared history, culture and destiny.

It is not immediately clear whether the visit itself will be enough to clear the air. Azerbaijani media outlets close to the government are still full of articles chastising Ankara, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s visit to Baku last month was received with disdain.

Turkish officials maintain that the whole affair is a misunderstanding, while Azerbaijani sources complain that Ankara behaves as though Azerbaijan were another Turkish province.

“We are two states, no one should ever forget that,” one Azerbaijani source told Middle East Eye.

Ankara would like to see Aliyev participate in the Cop31 climate summit in Antalya later this month, but Baku has yet to provide a definitive answer.