Fatih Erbakan, a Turkish opposition leader and son of the country’s first Islamist prime minister, has urged Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to end restrictions on girls wearing headscarves in schools, adding to a dispute between politicians in the two allied countries, the ANKA news agency reported.
The dispute concerns school dress rules Azerbaijan adopted on September 21 that prohibit additional clothing considered incompatible with school uniforms or secular education. The rules do not explicitly mention headscarves, but reports of girls being turned away from classes have sparked criticism in Turkey, where religious women fought for decades to overturn similar restrictions.
Erbakan, who leads the Islamist New Welfare Party (YRP), said in a video statement shared on X that the exclusions recalled the restrictions imposed in Turkey in the 1980s and 1990s.
He urged Aliyev to reverse the policy.
“Mr. Aliyev, even Armenia does not subject its own citizens to this treatment,” he said, claiming Armenian schools allow headscarves.
Sayın Aliyev; Üzülerek ifade etmek isterim ki SİZİN BU YAPTIĞINIZI ERMENİSTAN YAPMIYOR! pic.twitter.com/zPXdtVsZhx
— Dr. Fatih Erbakan (@erbakanfatih) October 14, 2026
Erbakan was comparing Azerbaijan with its longtime adversary Armenia, with which it fought two wars over Nagorno-Karabakh.
He also accused Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government of double standards, saying it loudly condemns similar restrictions in European countries but has failed to speak out against Azerbaijan.
Although Erbakan accused Ankara of silence, Oktay Saral, a chief adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and lawmakers from Erdoğan’s AKP have publicly criticized the restrictions.
Aliyev’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) responded on Tuesday by accusing Turkish politicians of exploiting the issue for political purposes and interfering in Azerbaijan’s domestic affairs.
It called on the AKP government to abandon what it described as a harmful policy.
Enforcement of the dress rules appears to vary between schools. A parent of a headscarf-wearing student told Turkish Minute earlier this month that their daughter was attending classes without problems.
The rules leave compliance decisions to school councils and do not specify whether students can be excluded from lessons.
The dispute has also divided Turkish political leaders. Erdoğan’s nationalist ally Devlet Bahçeli, who leads the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), urged respect for Azerbaijan’s sovereignty on Wednesday.
Opposition Felicity Party leader Mahmut Arıkan, meanwhile, compared the restrictions to those enforced in Turkey after a military-led campaign against political Islam in 1997.
That period is closely tied to Erbakan’s family history. His father, Necmettin Erbakan, helped build Turkey’s Islamist political movement and served as prime minister from 1996 to 1997. His Welfare Party (RP) provided a political home for a generation of politicians, including Erdoğan.
The elder Erbakan sought to ease university headscarf restrictions. But a military-led pressure campaign beginning with a February 28, 1997, ultimatum forced his government from office.
The ensuing crackdown brought stricter enforcement of headscarf bans, excluding women who wore headscarves from universities and public employment. Turkey’s Constitutional Court dissolved his RP in 1998 for violating secularism.
Erdoğan’s governments later dismantled the restrictions in stages, including lifting the ban for most public-sector employees in 2013.
Fatih Erbakan founded the New Welfare Party in 2018, drawing on his father’s political legacy. His party backed Erdoğan in the 2023 election but has since become a vocal critic of his government.
Turkey and Azerbaijan are close military and political allies that describe their relationship as “one nation, two states.”
They formalized their alliance in the 2021 Shusha Declaration, which covers security and defense cooperation.
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