Turkey, Azerbaijan sign more contracts

QABALA

Turksih Prime Minister Erdoğan (L) and Azeri President İlham Aliyev shake hands during a joint press meeting. The countries have enhanced ties, inking more deals. AA Photo

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Azerbaijan emphasized the improving business and trade ties, with the two countries signing eight deals yesterday in Qabala.

Turkey will not open its border gates with Armenia unless the country solves its problems with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Erdoğan said, speaking at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev after the signings.

A meeting of the Turkey-Azerbaijan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council, co-chaired by Erdogan and Aliyev, was held in Qabala yesterday. Turkey and Azerbaijan signed eight cooperation agreements in various fields, including energy, transportation, diplomacy, culture and economy there, Anatolia news agency reported.

Turkey and Azerabaijan improved their energy ties with a deal earlier this year to build the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), a planned project to carry Caspian gas to eastern Turkey, from where it might also be transferred to European markets. This was followed by fresh talks on adding Turkmen gas to the project with contributions from Azerbaijan.

“Opening the border gates [with Armenia] is out of the question, unless the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is solved,” Erodğan said at the meeting.