Last week, an outstanding investment forum was orchestrated in Baku, uniting businesspeople from both Türkiye and Azerbaijan.

In recent years, the relations between Türkiye and Azerbaijan have been exceptional. Business leaders are diligently working to expand cooperation beyond military and political ties, ensuring it is also reflected in business and cultural spheres.

Hüseyin Büyükfırat, president of the Azerbaijan-Türkiye Businessmen Association, has been living in Baku since the First Azerbaijan-Armenia War. He coordinated the aid of several organizations during the war and continued his business life in Azerbaijan since then. He is currently the president of the Union of Turkish-Azerbaijani Businessmen and Industrialists (TÜIB), which organized the forum in cooperation with the Azerbaijan Agency for Promotion of Exports and Investments (AZPROMO).

Azerbaijan's Vice President Şahmar Mövsümov and several ministers were at the forum. The Türkiye delegation included Trade Minister Ömer Bolat and head of the Presidential Finance Office Göksel Aşan, as well as Deputy Health Minister Şuayip Birinci, Deputy Agriculture Minister Ebubekir Gizligider, senior bureaucrats and many journalists.

The Azerbaijani delegation included Economy Minister Mikayıl Jabbarov, Agriculture Minister Majnun Mammadov, Health Minister Teymur Musayev, head of the Labor Organization Mustafa Abbasbeyli, head of the Monopoly Administration Valeh Asgerov, head of the Customs Committee Şahin Bagirov, and many other senior executives in the economic and commercial fields.

Spectacular gathering at brilliant congress center

The program started on Wednesday with a dinner and continued on the second day at the Heydar Aliyev Congress Center. The Congress Center was built by the famous architect Zaha Hadid, whose works I had a chance to examine in detail during my doctorate studies.

The Congress Center, from a distance, makes clear that it is a Zaha Hadid project with its soft lines, a group of buildings that gives an impression of soft earth and its unique identity. The project carries perhaps one of her last signatures. Its extraordinarily light color structure, subtle curves and especially the warmth of the wood used in the hall of the Congress Center reveal its unique position among others around the globe.

Addressing the congress, both leaders of business associations, Azerbaijan's Vice President Şahmar Mövsümov and Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, delivered constructive speeches. Minister Bolat discussed investment and growth potential in the two countries, emphasizing the institutional positions of the states that facilitate, guide and empower investors. In his speech, Bolat stated that both states are in a continuous growth trend, and at the same time, they are making joint efforts to facilitate investment. TÜIB President Hüseyin Büyükfırat announced that the forum will now become a tradition and that it will be held in Azerbaijan again next year. Following the institutional infrastructure's establishment, the third one will be held in Türkiye.

Paradigm changing triumph

The Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and Armenia had extremely critical geopolitical outcomes. First, Türkiye and Azerbaijan, shoulder to shoulder, had a remarkable achievement in this war and reclaimed the illegally occupied territories after 30 years.

Perhaps henceforth, the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) will be better positioned to make a more substantial recovery and approach the future with confidence.

Türkiye, with its presence in Libya, strong navy in the Eastern Mediterranean, and support to Azerbaijan in the Karabakh war, has underlined in bold terms that it is a regional power. Opening the Zangezur corridor in the long term will enable shipping products from Türkiye to the depths of Asia by road and rail via Nakhchivan. Vica versa, Turkic states in Asia will also be able to reach Europe via Türkiye, and this vitality in socio-economic life will carry the relations between Türkiye and Azerbaijan, and all Turkic states, to a completely different level.