▲Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (left) with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (right) during the opening ceremony of the Iğdır–Nakhchivan gas pipeline. Official image.
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During a state visit to Turkey on Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, together with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, attended the opening ceremony of the Iğdır–Nakhchivan gas pipeline via video link from Ankara.
‘The project we are inaugurating today will ensure Nakhchivan’s energy security. Gas from Azerbaijan will be transferred to the exclave of Nakhchivan through [Turkey] via a swap agreement, permanently resolving this issue for Nakhchivan’, Aliyev said during the ceremony.
In turn, Erdoğan highlighted that the 80 km pipeline — which has a daily transport capacity of up to 2 million cubic metres — would serve as ‘a sign of our common destiny with Nakhchivan’.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding the pipeline was first signed between the Turkish company BOTAŞ and Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR) in 2010 in an effort to replace the exclave’s dependence on gas from Iran. A decade later, in 2020, Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez and Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov signed another MoU. Construction of the Iğdır–Nakhchivan pipeline finally began in September 2023.
During their speeches at the pipeline’s inauguration, both Aliyev and Erdoğan also touched upon other joint projects, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, and TANAP oil and gas pipeline projects.
In particular, Aliyev highlighted that in 2024, Azerbaijan’s gas exports reached 25 billion cubic metres — Turkey accounting for half of that volume — allowing European countries to strengthen their energy security.
Another joint project discussed was the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which Aliyev noted ‘provides enormous advantages both for our countries and for a wider region’.
‘This transport link has tremendous significance and benefits, especially in terms of uniting the Turkic world’, Aliyev said, adding that ‘Azerbaijan has always placed significance on the unification of the Turkic world and has spared no effort to ensure this unity, make it eternal, and establish relations based on common interests and shared history’.
Beyond economic and transport ties, the two heads of state also spoke about peace in the greater Caucasus region, with Erdoğan emphasising that both countries ‘favour peace, stability, and prosperity’.
‘We only want peace in our region, we want cooperation, and we want all of us to develop together. For this purpose, we have taken a number of steps and demonstrated how sincere we are’, Erdoğan said.
Following the pipeline’s inauguration, Aliyev and Erdoğan attended an iftar ceremony in Ankara.
After years in academia, Xandie returned to Georgia to join OC Media. Her previous work with non-profits focused on Eurasian affairs, particularly queer and gender rights and green politics. She’s also a fan of foreign cinema, tea, and books (but not spilling tea on them).
Bahruz Samadov submitted this article shortly before his arrest on 21 August. He was charged with treason on 23 August, and could face 12–20 years in prison or a life sentence if found guilty.
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