By Mehmet Sah Yilmaz
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday visited an exhibit of Anadolu Agency photos in Zangilan, a region that was liberated last year from Armenian occupation.
Serdar Karagoz, the agency’s chairman and director general, told the two presidents about the photos in the exhibit, which spotlight the enduring Turkish-Azerbaijani fellowship as well as Azerbaijan's victory nearly a year ago in Nagorno-Karabakh.
During the visit, Erdogan and Aliyev also lingered in remembrance at a photo of Ozdemir Bayraktar, the founder of Baykar, one of Turkey’s leading defense firms, who died last month at age 72.
"We commemorate Ozdemir Bayraktar, who received the Order of Karabakh for his contributions to the Karabakh Victory, with respect and mercy," said the caption to the portrait of Baykar, who passed away on Oct. 18.
Erdogan traveled to Azerbaijan for a one-day working visit at Aliyev's invitation.
Among the Turkish officials accompanying Erdogan were Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, and presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.
Erdogan also attended the inauguration of the Fuzuli International Airport and groundbreaking ceremony of a highway in the same city.
- Karabakh victory
Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Last year, Armenian attacks escalated the tension into a six-week conflict, ending with a Russian-brokered truce.
During that time, Azerbaijan liberated several strategic cities and nearly 300 of its settlements and villages from Armenian occupation.
On Nov. 10, the two countries signed a Russian-brokered agreement to end fighting and work toward a comprehensive resolution.