Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will not attend the 13th summit of heads of state of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS, known in Turkish as TDT) in Ankara on Friday, 30 October, according to Azerbaijani media reports carried by Turkish outlets on Thursday.
Cumhuriyet, citing the Azerbaijan-based Report news agency, said Aliyev would skip the meeting because of previously planned events and a busy work schedule, and that Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov would represent Azerbaijan on his instruction. ANKA News Agency, in a report carried by Son Dakika, cited the Azerbaijani outlet Oxu.az with the same reason and also named Bayramov as Baku’s representative.
U-15 tournament in Baku
Both reports said Aliyev is due to present awards to the finalists of a FIFA U-15 World Championship and Festival being held in Baku. Cumhuriyet said the ceremony is set for 30 October, after the final, and that Baku is hosting the event for the first time. Cumhuriyet added that the Azerbaijani delegation would take an active part in other meetings and events during the summit.
Neither report quoted Aliyev or his office directly; the information came from Azerbaijani media.
Foreign ministers meet in Beştepe
Ahead of the leaders’ summit, the OTS Council of Foreign Ministers met at the Presidential Complex in Beştepe, Ankara, hosted by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Cumhuriyet reported. The meeting was closed to the press and was intended to prepare for Friday’s summit.
According to Cumhuriyet, participants included Bayramov, Kazakhstan’s Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Kyrgyzstan’s Ceenbek Kulubayev, Uzbekistan’s Bakhtiyor Saidov, Turkmenistan’s ambassador in Ankara and Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, as well as OTS Secretary General Kubanychbek Omuraliev.
On Thursday afternoon President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and visiting Turkic leaders also opened a new forest park in the capital; see Erdoğan and Turkic leaders open Beştepe Nation’s Forest.
Sources
- Azerbaycan basını: Aliyev, Türkiye’deki Türk Devletleri Teşkilatı Zirvesi’ne katılmayacak (Cumhuriyet)
- Aliyev, Türkiye’ye gelmiyor! İşte nedeni (ANKA via Son Dakika)
- Ankara’daki TDT 13’üncü Zirvesi’ne İlham Aliyev katılmayacak (Mynet)
Photo: Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
