Details added (first version posted on 13:05)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 17
Trend:
The state visit of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev to Turkey was a very important historic visit, the deputy head of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department, Novruz Mammadov said Jan. 17 at a press conference.
"First of all, this has been the first visit of Azerbaijan's president this year," he said. "It was a state visit, and for its form and content it has indeed played an important role not only for the Azerbaijani-Turkish relations, but also for international relations."
"The visit has been a very important step in terms of welcoming ceremony for the president, the negotiations, their content, the achieved results, the set tasks and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey until 2020, as well as in defining the development prospects for the coming years," he added.
He said the visit was indeed a crown of the processes that have taken place between the two countries throughout the period of independence of Azerbaijan.
Mammadov said the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey noted that today it is impossible to find on the international arena another example of such close relations between the states.
"There are states in the world that have historical, religious and cultural ties, but there are no similar close relations," he said. "Today, perhaps, it is impossible to find two states that are so close to each other."
"There are the states which, although being bound by these factors, have hostile relations. I believe the main reason for the coincidence of the two countries' interests, is that the peoples and the heads of state act with one voice," Mammadov stressed.
He noted that usually the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey meet twice a year.
"This year, there may be more of such meetings," he said. "I concede that there may be even four. One of them, as is known, is associated with the G20 summit invitation made to Azerbaijan's president by the Turkish president. In general, there is a rule that the country hosting the summit has the right to invite any country at its own discretion," Mammadov added.
"Turkish side decided that only Azerbaijan can be such a country. I think the visit will be useful for Azerbaijan. Given the development in the political, economic, cultural and other areas, it deserves to be represented at such a place," he said.
Mammadov also noted that during the visit, the Azerbaijani president was invited by the Turkish side to the ceremony dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Canakkale, to be held April 24.
"President Ilham Aliyev was very pleased to accept the invitation," Mammadov said.