Erdoğan in Shusha on Victory Day: official visit, Khankendi, veterans and a 40-classroom school in Aghdam

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Azerbaijan on an official visit on 8 November, the country's Victory Day. He was received at an official welcome ceremony in Shusha, held a one-on-one meeting with President Ilham Aliyev, and the two leaders gave joint press statements. They then posed for photographs in front of Shusha Fortress and visited the Khojaly Genocide Memorial.

In Khankendi they laid wreaths at the Victory Monument. In the evening Aliyev and Erdoğan, together with their wives, met decorated servicemen, and an official banquet was given in Erdoğan's honour on behalf of the Azerbaijani president.

In his remarks Erdoğan said that in the city where the Shusha Declaration was signed in 2021, Turkish-Azerbaijani ties go far beyond a shared language, history and culture, and called the motto “One nation, two states” a guide for the future. He noted that the Azerbaijan-Türkiye International Forestry Training Center and nursery in Jabrayil is already operating, and that he hopes to open a 40-classroom school under construction in Aghdam together with Aliyev next year. He also mentioned passing through seven tunnels on the road from Fuzuli airport to Shusha.

Erdoğan thanked Azerbaijan for its one-year chairmanship of the Organization of Turkic States, said the chairmanship has now passed to Türkiye and promised to work to make the organization more effective. Aliyev said the unity of the two peoples is unshakable and that no one will be allowed to undermine it. Erdoğan ended by congratulating Azerbaijan on Flag Day on 9 November and wished that the two countries' flags would always fly side by side.