Baku (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will arrive in Azerbaijan on Sunday on a visit aimed at calming tensions between the two countries after the Baku authorities approved regulations that impose restrictions on wearing the hijab in schools.

Published on: 08/11/2026 - 08:49

The two countries have close political, military, economic and cultural relations, which are summarized in the phrase “one nation, two states” used by diplomacy in each of them.

But relations witnessed tension in September when Azerbaijan approved new rules banning clothing that is not compatible with school uniforms and secularism.

This clash reflects the differences over the status of religion between Baku, which adheres to the secular nature of the state, and Ankara, which has been ruled for more than two decades by the conservative Islamist Justice and Development Party.

Although the new rules adopted by Baku do not explicitly mention the hijab, some schools reportedly prevented veiled girls from entering classes, sparking protests.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party called on Baku to abandon these rules.

The dispute between the two countries intensified when Erdogan's chief advisor, Oktay Saral, criticized these new rules. The party of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev considered the Turkish criticism to be interference in the country's internal affairs.

Erdogan later dismissed his advisor, but Aliyev boycotted a summit of leaders of Turkish-speaking countries held on October 30 in Ankara, contenting himself with sending his foreign minister.

The Turkish President announced Thursday that he intends to visit Azerbaijan on November 8, the day Baku celebrates its victory over the Armenian separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020.

Erdogan stressed that "there is no obstacle that the brotherhood between Türkiye and Azerbaijan cannot overcome."

"Younger brother"

In addition to the disagreement over the status of religion in the country, analysts point out that the current tension also reflects geopolitical differences.

Ilkhan Sahinoglu, director of the Baku-based Atlas Research Center, told AFP that the tension stems from the fact that "Baku does not consider itself the younger brother in this alliance, and insists on relations between two equal partners."

Gonul Tol, an analyst at the Middle East Institute in Washington, wrote on X that “the dispute over the hijab is an indication of a deeper rift” between the two countries.

She explained that "tensions have been lurking for a long time over several issues, especially Azerbaijan's sovereignty, Ankara's influence in Baku, differences in policy towards Israel, and Türkiye's closeness to Armenia."

Azerbaijan has established close relations with Israel, and the Hebrew state provided it with weapons in its six-week war against Armenia in 2020 in order to control the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

On the other hand, Erdogan accuses Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza, while Ankara has good relations with Hamas, which carried out the attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.

Türkiye is also seeking to normalize its relations with Armenia, while tension still exists between Yerevan and Baku.

Erdogan is participating in Baku in celebrations commemorating the Azerbaijani forces’ control of the city of Shusha in Karabakh during the war against Armenia, a victory achieved at that time with Turkish support.

Azerbaijan took complete control of Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning attack in 2023 with the support of Ankara.

Despite the tension, the two countries remain closely linked at the military and energy levels, as Türkiye constitutes a major outlet for Azerbaijan's oil and gas exports to Western markets.

© 2026 AFP

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