Turkish parliament speaker pays visit to Azerbaijan

By Ruslan Rahimov

BAKU (AA) - Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop paid an official visit to Azerbaijan's capital Baku on Wednesday.

President Ilham Aliyev received Sentop and congratulated him on his election as speaker of Turkish parliament, according to a statement from the Azerbaijani presidency.

He expressed appreciation for Sentop making his first official visit as parliament speaker to Azerbaijan.

Sentop, elected as speaker on Feb. 24, received 336 votes in the third round of voting in the 600-seat Grand National Assembly of Turkey, while the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) lawmakers backed him during the vote.

Underlining that Azerbaijan and Turkey supported each other in all matters, Aliyev said regularized mutual high-level visits after elections is a clear example of the "brotherhood" between the two countries.

He underscored the successful relations between Baku and Ankara, recalling that they had entered critical joint projects including the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and STAR Refinery.

TANAP, the longest part of the Southern Gas Corridor, is expected to carry 6 billion cubic meters of the Caspian gas per annum, and is set to connect to Europe through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which will transport 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to southeast Europe.

Turkey's biggest oil refinery, STAR, is a subsidiary of Azerbaijani energy company SOCAR's Turkish branch, SOCAR Turkey, and is expected to meet more than 25 percent of Turkey's processed oil products needs upon start-up.

For his part, Sentop said he was honored to visit Azerbaijan, and conveyed the greetings of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Aliyev.

Pointing to the close relations between the two countries, Sentop reiterated that Turkey supports the rightful cause of Azerbaijan on a resolution of the Karabakh dispute.

Sentop also visited the "martyrdom lane" and the martyrs’ memorial in Baku.

Karabakh -- a disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia -- broke away from Azerbaijan in 1991 with military support from neighboring Armenia, and a peace process has yet to be implemented.

Three UN Security Council resolutions and two UN General Assembly resolutions refer to Karabakh as being part of Azerbaijan, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe refers to the region as being occupied by Armenian forces.

The Armenian occupation of Karabakh led to the closing of the country’s frontier with Turkey, which sides with Baku in the dispute.