(MENAFN) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Azerbaijan on Saturday to participate in celebrations in Baku commemorating the fifth anniversary of Azerbaijan’s Victory Day, according to reports.

Erdogan was accompanied by several senior Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, National Defense Minister Yasar Guler, intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, Communications Director Burhanettin Duran, Defense Industries Secretary Haluk Gorgun, and Akif Cagatay Kilic, the president’s chief advisor on foreign policy and security.

During the visit, Erdogan is scheduled to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to discuss bilateral relations as well as regional and global issues.

Victory Day marks Azerbaijan’s liberation of most of the Karabakh region, which had been under Armenian control for nearly thirty years. The 44-day conflict in 2020 ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement, paving the way for potential normalization between Baku and Yerevan.

The city of Shusha, freed by Azerbaijani forces on November 8, 2020, was later declared as the symbolic center of Victory Day celebrations. Initially, the commemoration was set for November 10—the date marking the end of the Second Karabakh War—but was later moved to November 8 to avoid coinciding with the anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s passing, the founder of the Republic of Türkiye.

MENAFN09112025000045017640ID1110315723