The French news agency AFP reports that a new ban on headscarves in Azerbaijani schools and Baku’s deepening ties with Israel have strained normally warm relations with Turkey, triggering sharp exchanges between officials on both sides.
Azerbaijan-Turkey relations have come under strain in recent days over new school uniform rules and differences over Israel, AFP reported. Oktay Saral, chief adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called Azerbaijan’s new school dress code “unacceptable” on Monday, October 12. According to the agency, the rules ban items of clothing deemed to clash with standard uniform requirements and the principles of secular education. “A headscarf is not an obstacle, it is a matter of faith! The right to education cannot be sacrificed to any ideological pressure!” Saral wrote on X.
AFP wrote that the following day the ruling New Azerbaijan Party issued a sharply worded statement criticising Saral and lawmakers from Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) for their “populist and irresponsible remarks.” The party’s statement said a campaign of provocation against Azerbaijan was becoming increasingly aggressive, coordinated and openly slanderous by the day.
The agency noted that the standoff has again exposed the differences between secular Azerbaijan and the leadership in Ankara. It added that Baku’s close partnership with Israel since the 2020 Karabakh war — during which Israel supplied Azerbaijan with drones and other weapons — has unsettled Turkey, whose own relations with Israel have sharply deteriorated amid the recent events in Gaza.
Azerbaijan’s flexible foreign policy
AFP reported that Yeni Safak, a newspaper close to the Turkish government, described the new headscarf rule as a signal aimed at Israel. Independent political analyst Fuad Shahbazov told the agency that geopolitical shifts across Eurasia have given Azerbaijan room to pursue a more pragmatic foreign policy, allowing Baku to resist pressure even from its ally Ankara.
According to the agency, AKP deputy chairman Kursad Zorlu said on Friday, October 16, that the two countries were capable of resolving their differences “within the family.” A day earlier, on Thursday, October 15, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a regional summit in Baku that the bond between the two countries’ leaders had held firm even through the toughest moments.
Energy ties and regional security concerns
Ivan Klyszcz, a researcher at Estonia’s International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS), told AFP that amid periodic tensions with Moscow and the war in neighbouring Iran, Baku cannot afford to distance itself from a reliable partner like Turkey, and that energy cooperation remains highly valuable to both sides. Shahbazov added that Azerbaijan’s energy resources and access to Central Asia give it extra leverage in its dealings with Turkey.
AFP also reported that Baku issued an international arrest warrant on October 16 for Celal Ciftci, a journalist with the Turkish outlet Sanliurfa Olay. Azerbaijani authorities allege Ciftci called for a “coup” in Azerbaijan and promoted “religious radicalism.”
