Türkiye-Azerbaijan Business World
Summit of the 100 Years Program
Distinguished guests,
Esteemed representatives of the Turkish and Azerbaijani business world,
Esteemed members of our MÜSİAD,
Esteemed members of the press,
Respected ladies and gentlemen,
I greet you all with respect, affection and reverence.
Welcome to the “Türkiye-Azerbaijan Business World Summit of the 100 Years Program”, you have honoured us with your presence…
Distinguished guests, esteemed MÜSİAD Family,
For more than 30 years, Türkiye and Azerbaijan have continued on their way under the motto “one nation, two states”, strengthening their friendship and brotherhood with an ever closer bond each passing day.
Our religion is one, our language is one, Our moon is one, our land is one, Our love is one, our path is one
We are one nation, two states The same desire, the same intent. Azerbaijan Türkiye.
How beautifully Bahtiyar Vahapzade described us; may God have mercy upon him. With his poems he was the symbol of both our language and our brotherhood. Our common value…
Today, the law of brotherhood between the two countries has covered great distances not only at the level of language and culture, but also in the economic, commercial and diplomatic sense.
Distinguished guests,
In the Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes that occurred in the east of our country, our country was shaken by the disaster of the century. In this earthquake, in which thousands of our people were left under the rubble, one of the first countries to rush to help was our friendly and brotherly country Azerbaijan.
With the participation of officials from the Azerbaijan Confederation of Entrepreneurs, MÜSİAD Azerbaijan, the Youth Assistance Fund, ATİB, TUİB, MİB, TUMİB, AEK, KOBSKA, TMZİAP and TOHGMB, together with the representative of the supporting institution KOBİA, the “Qardaş Köməyi” (Brotherly Aid) Platform was established under the slogan “I Am With You, My Türkiye”. The Chairman of the Board of MÜSİAD Azerbaijan, Reşad Cabirli, was elected chairman of the platform.
Our brothers, who launched aid activities very swiftly immediately after the earthquake, began to receive aid at 4 collection centres in Baku and 8 in the regions. In the light of the information provided by our Ambassador to Baku, Honourable Cahit Bağcı, the lists of needs and the cash support accounts were shared on a current basis.
A month after the earthquake, thanks to our Brotherly Aid Platform, 5 planeloads of supplies and 166 truckloads of relief materials had been delivered to the earthquake zone. In the following months, aid supplies continued to be sent. In addition, in the Türkoğlu district of Kahramanmaraş, which is in the earthquake zone, an Azerbaijan neighbourhood of 200 containers was created in the first phase.
It has been one of the most important aid activities in which two friendly and brotherly states embraced one another as though a single nation. Once again, may God be pleased with all of you. May God accept the aid you have given from the heart.
The Kahramanmaraş earthquakes truly shook us deeply. There were brothers and sisters of ours who lost their mother, their father, their child, their sibling, and even their entire family. This was a great trial… On this occasion I once again pray for God's mercy upon those who lost their lives, and wish patience and fortitude to those left behind.
Distinguished guests, esteemed MÜSİAD Family,
Türkiye's relations with Azerbaijan have always been multidimensional and at a strategic level. The most important elements that positively affect the relations of the two countries are the relations between the leaders. The friendship established between the leaders of the two countries from the 1990s onwards gained great momentum especially after 2010.
Thanks to the relations developing between the two countries, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum energy lines were brought into being. In addition, alongside the military relations between Azerbaijan and Türkiye, joint foreign policy steps have likewise been taken thanks to the developing bilateral relations.
In order to strengthen bilateral relations still further, the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council mechanism was established at the level of Presidents in 2010. The Shusha Declaration, signed on 15 June 2021 on the occasion of our Honourable President's visit to Azerbaijan, less than a year after the 33-year occupation of Karabakh came to an end with a historic and glorious victory, is an extremely important document in that it raised our bilateral relations to the level of alliance.
The Shusha Declaration is a roadmap that determines the main lines of the future of relations in the fields of the economy, energy and transport as much as in the fields of security and the military.
The following sentence spoken by Honourable İlham Aliyev at his oath-taking ceremony in 2003, when he was elected president, is extremely important in the context of the diplomatic relations of the two states: “Wherever Türkiye is, Azerbaijan is there too.” The friendship of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Honourable President İlham Aliyev has raised the relations of the two countries from strategic partnership to the level of strategic alliance.
The TANAP project in the field of energy and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project in the field of transport added value to the strategic worth of the two countries. Moreover, these projects have begun to play an important role in Europe's energy security. Through the joint effort of the two leaders, the Council of Turkic Speaking States was founded, and this structure was later transformed into the Organization of Turkic States.
One of the most important reasons why the diplomatic relations between the two countries are so close is of course the existence of many common interests. From Azerbaijan's point of view, the safest route for delivering its energy resources to Western markets has been Türkiye. Moreover, Türkiye's being an effective power in the South Caucasus is also extremely compatible with Azerbaijan's regional interests.
Together with the independent foreign policy pursued by both countries in recent times, the development of the energy and transport lines, the more active participation of the Organization of Turkic States in the process, the establishment of positive relations with the states of the region and the realization of regional projects are also results of the intensive cooperation in the relations of the two countries. As you know, the deep-rooted diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Türkiye, spanning more than 30 years, have many multifaceted and strategic stages.
Distinguished guests,
Immediately after the elections, the first country our Honourable President visited, after the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, was Azerbaijan. With this important visit emphasizing the diplomatic and economic relations of the two countries, the bonds have been strengthened much further with the understanding of "one nation, two states".
Our leaders, who drew attention to the importance of the Shusha Declaration that raised the relationship of the two countries to the level of alliance, agreed that the matters contained in this document will be swiftly put into practice. Emphasis was placed on Türkiye's preparations to open its Consulate General in Shusha, the emergence of a will regarding the establishment of the Azerbaijan-Türkiye joint university that has long been worked on, the display of a common stance in foreign policy, the peace and stability of the region, the reflection on the Turkic World of the development of Türkiye-Azerbaijan relations, cooperation in the fields of energy and the defence industry, raising the foreign trade volume to USD 15 billion, the preferential trade agreement, joint work in the field of agriculture and livestock, cooperation in the field of transport, and finally the development of bilateral relations in every field.
In the end, this visit shows that in the coming periods Azerbaijan will occupy first place in Türkiye's foreign policy, as it has done until now. It is possible to say that in the coming periods relations between Türkiye and Azerbaijan will progress in line with a "common vision for the future".
Dear friends,
Alongside the diplomatic relations that have continued for more than 30 years between Türkiye and Azerbaijan, economic and commercial relations essentially occupy a very important place as well. The trade volume, which increases with each passing day, will reach much better levels in the future.
While we are on the subject, I would like to touch briefly on bilateral economic relations as well:
Türkiye's exports to Azerbaijan have shown an upward trend since 1993, for such reasons as our export products beginning to become known in that country, Turkish companies importing from Türkiye by opening branches in the Azerbaijani market, and marketing these goods in the domestic market. In 2022 our exports to Azerbaijan rose by % 6.9 compared with the previous year, reaching USD 2.5 billion. In the same period our imports from Azerbaijan recorded an increase of % 20.7 on an annual basis, rising to approximately USD 836.4 million. When we look at these figures, we see that the bilateral trade volume stood at around USD 3.3 billion.
In the January-May period of 2023, Türkiye's exports to Azerbaijan recorded an increase of % 10.5 compared with the same period of the previous year, rising to approximately USD 1.1 billion. In this period Türkiye's imports from Azerbaijan rose by % 19.5 to USD 535.5 million. The main products we export to Azerbaijan are spread over many different fields, from pharmaceuticals to iron or steel components, from cleaning products to fire extinguishers. The principal import items consist of petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons, crude oil, cotton, petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, and unwrought aluminium.
Distinguished guests,
Esteemed members of our MÜSİAD,
The “Türkiye-Azerbaijan Business World Summit of the 100 Years Program”, which we are greatly pleased to hold today, is also one of the steps taken in order to make the friendship I have spoken of throughout my speech stronger in the days ahead, and to strengthen our bond of brotherhood further.
I hope that this meeting of ours will give us strength in bringing about even finer works in the periods ahead.
As I conclude my remarks, I greet you all with the most sincere feelings and pray to God that our effort may be a means to goodness.
May God protect you.
Mahmut Asmalı
President of MÜSİAD