The famous saying goes that Turkey and Azerbaijan are “one nation, two states”. Such are the countries’ ties that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founding father of the modern Turkish Republic, said: “Azerbaijan's joy is our joy, its sorrow is our sorrow.”
But a row over school uniform rules threatens to sour decades of close ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey, countries that share a defence pact, billions of dollars in annual trade, and whose languages are so similar that they are mutually intelligible.
Azerbaijan’s cabinet last month approved a ban on items of clothing that are “inconsistent with the principle of secularism”. It made no explicit mention of headscarves, but in recent days videos have circulated on social media showing schoolgirls wearing hijabs in floods of tears, saying they had been barred from their classrooms.
“My mother thinks I’m in there getting an education, but they put me in a room, like a tiny shack, and hid me from the other children,” one girl was filmed saying.
State television in the majority-Muslim former Soviet state said this week that new rules effectively banning girls from wearing headscarves to school were an effort by the government “block every move that seeks to add Arab-Persian values” to Azerbaijani national identity. While headscarves are permissible elsewhere, “School has a school uniform, and so on, and everyone must respect and abide by this rule,” a presenter on AZ TV said.
Analysts said the move stemmed from fears in Baku of Iranian influence and a desire to maintain the country’s strong tradition of secularism, but it also prompted sharp criticism from Turkey.
Another video from today. Parent says that her kid wasn't let in, she has been told if they continue standing outside they will be arrested as terrorists and she asks what kind of terrorism she is doing right now. pic.twitter.com/a2hHhCUASe
— Cavid #FreeUlviyya (@cavidaga) October 14, 2026
Tensions boiled over on Monday, when Oktay Saral, a senior adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Azerbaijan’s decisions denied headscarf-wearing girls the right to education, and that Azerbaijan should “correct this mistake as soon as possible”.
Members of parliament from Mr Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) joined in the unusually sharp criticism. Zehranur Aydemir, an MP for the capital, Ankara, said that the “wrongdoing” was a “violation of freedom of religion and the right to education”.
Sabir Askeroglu, an Ankara-based international relations analyst, said the disagreements could have a “negative impact” on Turkish-Azerbaijani relations, but added that it was more likely to be at a societal level than a serious deterioration in bilateral ties.
“The main risk is not the disagreement itself, but the possibility that reciprocal accusations could gradually erode public trust between the two countries,” he told The National.
A Shiite Muslim majority nation of 10.4 million in the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan’s Soviet history means religious observance is far less a feature of daily life than in neighbouring Turkey and Iran. In the latter, women have long fought against mandatory hijab rules imposed since the 1979 revolution that brought the current clerical leadership to power.
In 2020, Turkish military support helped Baku regain from Armenia territory internationally recognised as Azerbaijani in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, while Azerbaijan’s close military, defence and intelligence ties with Israel have been a source of tension with neighbouring Iran. Turkey used to have expanding ties with Israel too, but relations nosedived after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
The headscarf issue is such a sore point in Turkey because of its own fraught history with Muslim women’s dress. In the 1990s, Turkey’s then-strictly secular authorities, fearful of the rise of political Islam, banned women and girls from wearing headscarves in schools, universities and government jobs. That forced many women to choose between their faith and an education or career. Many political observers partly credit Mr Erdogan's rise to his dismantling of such policies.
Emine Ilyas heads the 28th February Students’ Association, a group representing Turkish women whose education was interrupted in the 1990s because they wore headscarves. Commenting on the Azerbaijani ban on social media, she said no “bureaucratic tutelage” could be a “cover for restricting fundamental rights and freedoms”.
Members of the Turkish opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), widely seen as less religiously conservative and more secular than Mr Erdogan’s AKP, also said Azerbaijan should reconsider its decision. “Let them [women] choose the clothing they wish to wear,” CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said.
In Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev’s party hit back with unusually strong criticism of Turkey and Mr Erdogan’s AKP. The New Azerbaijan Party said in a statement on Tuesday that the comments from Mr Saral and AKP legislators were “populist and irresponsible”.
“No state in the Islamic world has the right to dictate its will to other Muslim peoples, to interfere in their internal affairs, or to see itself as superior to others,” it said.
The headscarf ban prompted protests outside the Azerbaijani consulate in Istanbul, and in Azerbaijan, the Interior Ministry said on Monday that 37 people had been detained for disrupting public order while opposing enforcement of the rules, Reuters reported. Internet monitor NetBlocks said restrictions to TikTok, Instagram and X web platforms were in place on multiple internet providers in the country.
Footage shared on social media showed Azerbaijani women angrily addressing messages to authorities, including MPs and the security forces.
“Four cars of state officials came to my door early in the morning, saying it is forbidden for your child to come to school wearing a hijab,” one mother shouted in a scene caught on video and shared widely on social media.
The scenes are unusual in Azerbaijan, where human rights groups have long criticised severe restrictions on freedom of speech, as well as authoritarian political rule by Mr Aliyev.
Vasif Huseynov, a department head at the Azerbaijani state-run Centre of Analysis of International Relations, said the school uniform rules were a move against Iranian attempts to expand adherence to Tehran’s religious ideologies into the country.
“It is precisely for this reason that the steps taken by the Azerbaijani government are aimed at protecting our national interests, our national values, our tradition of secularism spanning over a century, and the stability of our country,” he said in a post on X.
Turkey’s fraught experience with the headscarf ban in the 1990s did not apply to Azerbaijan, he added. “Certain issues cannot be properly understood by viewing them solely through the lens of Turkey’s realities.”
Over the past week, Turkish officials have attempted to calm tensions by promoting the long history of watertight strategic and economic ties with Azerbaijan.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan was welcomed by President Aliyev when he travelled to Baku for a summit on Thursday and told journalists that any issues would be addressed “by sitting down and talking them over”.
“There is absolutely no need for these matters to be turned into tools for propaganda on social media,” he said.
The primary responsibility for managing the disagreement lies with the political decision-makers in both countries, analyst Mr Askeroglu said.
“Turkish officials should use a balanced tone that respects Azerbaijan's sovereignty and domestic legal framework while also taking sensitivities within Turkish public opinion into account,” he told The National.
“Similarly, Azerbaijani officials should avoid interpreting all criticism expressed in Turkey as an attempt to interfere in Azerbaijan's internal affairs.”