The Azerbaijani president will pay his first visit since taking office after last year's elections
The president of Azerbaijan will travel to Turkey in mid-April for his first visit here since becoming president last year and will discuss matters of concern to the two allied nations. President Ilham Aliyev will have meetings with Turkish leaders in Ankara and then head to Istanbul for talks with business circles during his three-day visit on April 13-15, a statement from the Foreign Ministry said.
A joint declaration by Aliyev and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and a series of agreements committing the two countries to cooperation in various fields are expected to be signed during Aliyev's visit.
Regional allies Turkey and Azerbaijan are partners in a U.S.-backed multi-billion-dollar project to transfer crude oil from Azerbaijan's offshore Caspian fields to Western markets through Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
The first oil through the pipeline, which crosses Georgian territory as well, is scheduled to be delivered in 2005. When completed, the pipeline will transport an annual 50 million cubic meters of crude oil to Western markets.
The two countries also have a united stance against mutual neighbor Armenia, which is keeping the Azeri territory of Nagorno-Karabakh under occupation.
In remarks last week, Aliyev said Turkey was coming under intense international pressure toits border gate with Armenia, closed for a decade. The closure came as part of economic sanctions imposed by Turkey on Armenia in protest of its occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and its backing for Armenian diaspora efforts abroad to win international recognition of allegations of a genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
The United States and the European Union, which Turkey aspires to join, have called on Turkey to lift the embargo andthe gate, saying it would bring benefits to all.
Azerbaijan, which sees the closed border gate as leverage in negotiations, says this would hamper peace efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
