Azeri President, Turkish premier to discuss regional cooperation
By Sevinc Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 29, 2005 Wednesday 9:28 PM Eastern Time
BAKU, June 30 — President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived here late Wednesday
night, begin official talks Thursday to discuss bilateral, regional
and international cooperation.
This is the first time Erdogan is visiting Azerbaijan in the capacity
of prime minister.
Diplomatic sources in Baku say Aliyev and Erdogan will begin the
program for the day with a tete-a-tete meeting and members of
Azerbaijani and Turkish government delegations will join them later.
Cooperation in oil and gas industry and other parts of the energy
sector, peace settlement in the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorny
Karabakh, and promotion of democratic processes in Azerbaijan will
likely dominate the discussions, the sources said.
Aliyev told the CNN Turk channel Wednesday relations between the two
countries are at a very high level at the moment and have moved to
a new dimension.
An entirely new atmosphere is forming in the region thanks to the
projects the two countries are carrying out together, he said,
Aliyev believes new horizons will open for Azerbaijan and Turkey in
the future.
Erdogan and he are expected to sign a range of documents at the end of
Thursday’s talks. The package includes agreements on cooperation in
the economy, technology, education, science, cartography, as well as
agreements on joint actions in emergency situations and on copyright.
The itinerary of Erdogan’s stay in Baku envisions an address to members
of the Azerbaijani parliament, meetings with parliament speaker Murtuz
Aleskerov, Prime Minister Artur Rasi-zade, Azerbaijani and Turkish
business people,
Erdogan will also take part in the cornerstone ceremony at the site
of a new Turkish embassy in Baku.