Anadolu Agency (AA) Turkey
 Friday


Turkish president to visit Azerbaijan next week


By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Azerbaijan on Oct. 30 and
31, the Turkish presidency said in a statement on Friday.

Erdogan, together with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian
Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, will attend on Monday the first
official train service of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway project.

The 826-kilometer (513-mile) long railway is being built in accordance
with an intergovernmental agreement between Ankara, Baku and Tbilisi.

Erdogan on Tuesday will attend the 6th Turkey-Azerbaijan High-Level
Strategic Council meeting.

The Turkish leader and Aliyev are expected to discuss "in detail"
bilateral relations, regional and international developments,
particularly the occupied Karabakh dispute.

Azerbaijan and Armenia remain in dispute over the occupied Karabakh
region. Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan in 1991 with Armenian
military support, and a peace process has yet to be implemented.

Turkey reiterates that the dispute needs to be resolved within the
framework of international law and Azerbaijan's sovereignty and
territorial integrity.

According to Friday's statement, a number agreements on cooperation
between Ankara and Baku are also expected to be signed.