Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Thursday called for problems with Azerbaijan to be discussed “in the family,” as criticism of its ally’s school headscarf restrictions and ties with Israel fueled a dispute between politicians in the two countries.
AKP deputy chairman Kürşad Zorlu, who oversees relations with Turkic states, urged respect for each country’s decisions and sovereignty while speaking at an event in Ankara marking Kyrgyzstan’s independence, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
“We also know how to discuss our problems in our family council, in a manner befitting us,” he said.
Zorlu acknowledged differences between the countries without referring directly to the headscarf restrictions and urged the public to look to Erdoğan, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and authorized bodies for Turkey’s position.
The dispute escalated after Oktay Saral, a chief adviser to Erdoğan, and AKP lawmakers criticized Azerbaijan over schools turning away girls wearing Islamic headscarves.
Former Turkish prime minister Binali Yıldırım threatened punishment for anyone attempting to interfere in Azerbaijan’s affairs in an interview with Azerbaijani journalist Ali Valiyev.
“We will punish anyone who attempts or ventures to do so in the strongest possible way,” he said.
Yıldırım, who chairs the Council of Elders of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), a group linking Turkey, Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries, argued that Azerbaijan makes its own decisions and that Turkey must respect them.
The video interview was recorded the previous week and published Wednesday, while Yıldırım separately told the outlet by telephone that Saral’s remarks did not reflect Erdoğan or the Turkish state’s policy, according to Manset.az, which conducted the interview.
Fidan, meanwhile, met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Thursday while representing Erdoğan at the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), a forum for cooperation on regional security.
“Whatever the circumstances, the strategic nature of the Turkey-Azerbaijan relationship is above every issue,” Fidan said.
He dismissed some problems as manufactured and exaggerated, warned against turning disagreements into propaganda on social media and confirmed that he had discussed the issues with Aliyev.
Fidan also disclosed that he had received instructions from Erdoğan before traveling to Baku and maintained that differences should be discussed between the two governments without damaging their partnership.
The appeals followed a statement Tuesday from Aliyev’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), which accused Saral and AKP lawmakers of interfering in Azerbaijan’s affairs and exploiting religion to exert political pressure on Baku.
YAP defended Azerbaijan’s secular constitution, pointed out that Turkey’s constitution also defines the state as secular and argued that their shared identity did not give either country a right to impose its political or ideological preferences on the other.
The school dispute concerns dress rules Azerbaijan adopted on September 21 that prohibit additional clothing deemed incompatible with school uniforms or secular education.
The rules do not explicitly mention headscarves or authorize excluding pupils from lessons, but some schools have enforced them as a ban, prompting complaints from parents and criticism in Turkey.
The issue has also divided Turkish politicians, with Fatih Erbakan, leader of the Islamist New Welfare Party (YRP), urging Aliyev to reverse the restrictions and accusing Erdoğan’s government of applying different standards to Azerbaijan and European countries.
Erdoğan’s parliamentary ally, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), on Wednesday urged respect for Azerbaijan’s sovereignty.
Headscarf restrictions carry political significance in Turkey, where bans once excluded headscarved women from universities and public employment. Erdoğan’s governments dismantled those restrictions in stages between 2010 and 2017.
Erdoğan condemned school headscarf bans as an attack on women’s rights at the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, a day after Azerbaijan changed its rules, without naming any country.
The dispute has unfolded alongside criticism in Turkey of Azerbaijan’s energy and defense ties with Israel, while YAP maintains those relations do not contradict its support for Palestinian rights.
At Thursday’s summit in Baku, Fidan and the Turkish delegation joined a walkout by representatives of more than 10 countries as Israeli President Isaac Herzog began speaking.
Herzog had flown through Turkish airspace to Baku on an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger flight Wednesday, avoiding Turkey’s restrictions on Israeli government aircraft, Middle East Eye reported.
Turkey and Azerbaijan describe their relationship as one nation, two states, reflecting their related languages and cultural ties, and formalized their defense and security alliance in the 2021 Shusha Declaration.
Zorlu said Aliyev would visit Turkey for an upcoming summit, where he would meet with Erdoğan.
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