Kurdistan
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani (left) shakes hands with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on July 18, 2023. Photo: Office of the President
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani arrived in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Tuesday for a historic visit and met with the country’s President Ilham Aliyev.
Barzani was received at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport by Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmadov, before heading to the presidential palace for the meeting with Aliyev.
President Barzani thanked Aliyev for his “warm welcome,” stating that he was looking forward to advancing Iraq and the Kurdistan Region’s ties with Azerbaijan.
I’m pleased to visit Azerbaijan and meet with @Presidentaz Ilham Aliyev in Baku. I thank the President for his warm welcome and look forward to advancing ties between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq with Azerbaijan. pic.twitter.com/zZuCA9uwot
— Nechirvan Barzani (@IKRPresident) July 18, 2023
“In a friendly one-on-one meeting, both sides stressed the need to develop Azerbaijan’s relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in all fields, especially in economy, trade, tourism, energy, and investment opportunities for Azerbaijani companies in the Kurdistan Region and entirety of Iraq,” read a statement from President Barzani’s office on the meeting with Aliyev.
The two leaders also addressed the latest developments in the establishment of an Azerbaijani consulate in Erbil, as well as launching Baku-Erbil and Baku-Baghdad direct flights, the statement added.
During the meeting, Aliyev told Barzani of his “satisfaction” with a March visit of Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid to Baku “and the discussions he held with him on the development of our bilateral relations,” as well as noting another visit by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, according to a statement from the Azerbaijani presidency.
The statement added that President Barzani’s visit “will contribute to increasing the dynamics” of their bilateral relations.
“This visit will open new horizons. We have the will and the Azerbaijani side also has the will and wants this visit to open new opportunities, and he [President Barzani] is a national figure,” Makki Resan al-Mamouri, the Iraqi charge d'affaires to Azerbaijan, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih.
The visit comes following a meeting the two leaders had on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in February, during which Aliyev extended an invitation to Barzani to visit Azerbaijan.
Barzani and Aliyev discussed expanding trade ties between the Kurdistan Region and Azerbaijan during their meeting in February. Aliyev also told Barzani that they are working on opening a consulate in Kurdistan Region's capital city Erbil.
Over 6,000 Kurds were recorded to be living in Azerbaijan in the 2009 consensus, according to the London-based Minority Rights Group International. The human rights monitor estimated that the number of Kurds in Azerbaijan during the 1990’s was up to 200,000, but suggested that the massive drop is due to the large number of Azerbaijani Kurds that have assimilated into Azeri identity.
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