Aliyev-Erdogan: If Mountain does not Go to Mohammed - Mohammed Goes to the Mountain

• 03.16.2016, 20:35
•  Region,  World

If the mountain does not go to Mohammed, then Mohammed goes to the mountain – this is how Aliyev’s visit to Ankara can be briefly described. It should be recalled that the fifth high-level meeting of Azerbaijan-Turkey Strategic Cooperation Council with the participation of Turkish and Azerbaijani presidents was to be held on February 18 in Azerbaijan, but the meeting was postponed to March 15 because of the terrorist attack in Ankara. However, this time the meeting also did not take place in Azerbaijan...

After the terrorist attack on March 13 in Ankara, Erdogan once again canceled his visit to Azerbaijan. Then Aliyev decided to demonstrate loyalty of friendship and fraternity and proposed to change the venue. Aliyev’s this initiative was highly assesed in Ankara, and on the eve, the long-awaited meeting of the Cooperation Council between the two countries in which six documents were signed, took place.

Thus, Ankara and Baku signed a "Protocol of the fifth meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Turkey," "Protocol between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Republic of Turkey on exchange of the military/civilian personnel for social and cultural purposes," "Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Republic of Turkey on the paid employment of family members of employees of the diplomatic missions and consulates," "Agreement between the Justice Ministry of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Turkey on the cooperation in the sphere of forensic examination," "Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Republic of Turkey on mutual recognition and replacement of driving licenses,"  "Protocol between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Republic of Turkey on technical cooperation."

However, it is obvious that Aliyev was insistenting on holding the meeting not for these documents. Most likely, Baku was eager to discuss the implementation of the TANAP project, which involves the construction of the system of gas pipelines from the Azerbaijani "Shah Deniz" through Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania to the south of Italy by 2019. "We'll try to promptly implement the TANAP and TAP projects I believe that in two years we will celebrate the launch of TANAP gas pipeline,"  Aliyev said in Ankara.

In the recent years, European officials were more likely to talk about the importance of the "Southern Gas Corridor", thus giving a signal to Baku to hurry with the implementation of this project, which reduces the dependence of Europe on Russian gas. Another factor Baku was in hurry is the removal of sanctions on Iran, due to which Tehran announced about its plans to supply gas to Europe.

Russia after the suspension of the project "Turkish Stream" has become actively engaged in the implementation of the project "North Stream 2", which can also compete with Azerbaijani gas project. So, given these factors, Baku decided not to postpone the discussion of this issue with Turkey - a major partner in this project.

"The most important project that we carry with Azerbaijan is TANAP. We are working hard to finish it ahead of schedule," Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after the meeting.

It should be noted that this project is important not only from an economic point of view but also from the political: it is a leverage of influence on some of the EU decisions. Given this, some circles in Turkey, according to the Sabah Turkish newspaper, tend to believe that the terrorist attack in Ankara on the eve of Erdogan's visit to Baku is done by Russian secret services that work closely with the Kurds.

Here is the video in which Aliyev is "sympathizing" with Erdogan...