Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Agayeva / The Press Secretary of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Khazar Ibrahim, said on 27 August that the issue of canceling the visa system with Turkey is not discussed by the Azerbaijani side and it is unlikelythat the issue will be discussed in the near future.
From 1 August Turkey has eliminated the visa system for citizens of Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. This condition entails visiting Turkey for 30 days without a visa. Turkey highlighted its intention to increase its list of countries. Turkey reached agreements with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait regarding non-visa entry into its territory.
According to Ibrahim, from the point of view of international diplomatic law, this step by Ankara is one-sided and does not have to be reciprocated.
Earlier the Ambassador of Turkey to Azerbaijan, Huseyn Avni Karslioglu, reported to Trend that this decision by the Turkish Government was directed towards maximizing the potential to cross the Turkish borders for those citizens who have a common root. "The Government of Turkey eliminated the situation which was assessed as an obstacle. However, we cannot oblige any country to eliminate the visa system with Turkey," Ambassador said.
Currently Azerbaijan applies a mutual non-visa system with Russia and Georgia but not with Turkey. Senior officials of Azerbaijan link it with the non-settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Azerbaijani experts believe that simplifying the visa system with Turkey will not significantly expand relations between the two countries.