Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday sent his congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Wishing Erdoğan success and health, Aliyev said: "Your life is an example of faithfully serving the homeland and the people."

"You are a great personality, a distinguished statesman who has worked selflessly for the prosperity of brotherly Türkiye, for its development today, and for it to take its rightful place in the international arena," the Azerbaijani leader said in the message.

"You have fulfilled your historical mission with confidence and determination, and with your farsighted and decisive policy, you have made your country one of the most prominent and powerful states in the world.

"Türkiye's significant achievements and gains in the last 20 years are linked to your name," the message read.

Aliyev emphasized that they wish the fraternal country Türkiye to achieve all the goals and objectives it has set for itself and to achieve new successes and victories.

Recalling that he paid his first official visit to Türkiye after the elections in his country, Aliyev thanked his Turkish counterpart for his invitation and hospitality.

The Azerbaijani president also emphasized that he is confident that the relations between the two countries, which draw their strength from common history, rich national and spiritual values, brotherhood and unity of peoples, will develop and strengthen in line with the principle of "one nation, two states" with their joint efforts.

Erdoğan rarely publicly celebrates his past birthdays and this year, he was addressing a rally in the southeastern Adana province for the upcoming local elections.

Born in 1954 in a working-class neighborhood of Istanbul, Erdoğan was elected mayor of the city years later after a political career in the Welfare Party (RP) and National Salvation Party (MSP). His election was a turning point in the political life of Erdoğan, who had already made his mark on the political scene as a fiery orator in his youth.

In the years he served as mayor, he turned around Istanbul’s fortunes after years of chronic problems, from water shortages to pollution and traffic chaos. His legacy as mayor helped propel him to the forefront in the 2002 elections, where his party won a landslide victory, the first in years after a long period of coalition governments. Since then, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has run the country after successive election victories.

Erdoğan rose to the Presidency from the Prime Ministry in the past two decades and introduced the executive presidency system.

He won his second reelection as president in the May 2023 presidential polls.