Azerbaijan has issued arrest warrants for seven Turkish citizens living in Turkey, including Fatih Tezcan, a commentator who supports Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, amid a dispute between the allies over school headscarf restrictions, the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced on Monday.
The Binagadi District Court in Baku issued the orders in the men’s absence, with prosecutors launching an international search for them.
The others named are Islamist activist Rıdvan Kaya, writer Zekeriya Ceran, lawyer Ahmet Şanlı, researcher Fahrettin Taşkaya Saral, Abdurrahman Tumer and Alparslan Tanrıkulu. Ceran publishes under the name Abdullah İmamoğlu.
The seven face charges of calling for the government’s overthrow by force, inciting religious hatred through violence and producing or distributing material promoting religious extremism.
The case concerns social media posts from September 25 to October 18, along with speeches at protests outside Azerbaijan’s consulate in İstanbul on October 3 and its embassy in Ankara on October 13, according to the prosecutors’ statement.
The announcement did not reproduce the full speeches or individual posts cited as evidence. Prosecutors indicated that they were cooperating with Turkish officials through international legal assistance mechanisms.
Turkey’s constitution generally bars extraditing Turkish citizens to another country, so the warrants do not mean the seven will be handed over to Azerbaijan.
The prosecution violates freedom of expression, the Islamist Free Cause Party (HÜDA PAR) argued in a statement published by the Doğru Haber news website. The party compared Azerbaijan’s approach with restrictions on religious expression imposed in Turkey following a military-led campaign against political Islam in 1997.
The dispute began after Azerbaijan changed its school uniform rules on September 21, banning clothing deemed incompatible with uniforms or secular education.
The rules do not name headscarves, but schools have used them to turn away girls wearing the Islamic head covering, prompting protests in Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Teachers have also faced restrictions on wearing headscarves at work.
Criticism from Erdoğan adviser Oktay Saral and lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) sparked accusations of interference from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s government.
Baku asked Ankara to dismiss Saral, prosecute commentators accused of insulting Aliyev and block social media accounts, Middle East Eye reported on Monday, citing officials and people familiar with the dispute.
Some of the accounts had been blocked in Turkey, the outlet added.
Azerbaijani news outlets with ties to the government also accused Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan of encouraging unrest against Aliyev. One outlet removed passages targeting Fidan after the Turkish Embassy denied the allegations, according to the same report.
Ankara has sought to contain the disagreement. Former Turkish prime minister Binali Yıldırım warned last week that people attempting to interfere in Azerbaijan’s affairs would be punished, while Fidan argued that the countries’ strategic relationship took precedence over their differences.
The dispute has developed amid ongoing defense and economic cooperation. Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a mutual defense declaration in 2021, and Turkish officials announced $500 million in defense contracts in Baku earlier this month, according to Middle East Eye.
Headscarf restrictions carry political weight for Erdoğan, whose governments removed bans that had excluded women wearing headscarves from universities and public employment in Turkey.
Erdoğan condemned school headscarf bans at the United Nations General Assembly on September 22 without naming a country. Ankara maintains that his remarks targeted European countries rather than Azerbaijan.
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