Aliyev invites interim Syrian President al-Sharaa to visit Azerbaijan

· April 15, 2025

OC-media/org

Last Friday, a meeting was held between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the interim president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, during the Fourth Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey. Following this, Aliyev shared his hopes regarding developing relations for both sides, and invited al-Sharaa to visit Azerbaijan.

That same day, pro-government media outlet APA wrote that Aliyev noted Azerbaijan’s readiness to participate in the restoration process in Syria, while in turn, al-Sharaa emphasised the importance of Azerbaijan’s support for Syria in the future in the areas of energy, infrastructure, and security.

An agreement among Aliyev and al-Sharaa was also reached regarding mutual visits of high-level official delegations and representatives of business circles.

Separately, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan noted during the forum that Turkey ‘highly appreciates’ Azerbaijan’s support.

‘We welcome the initiatives taken in this direction. There is not only brotherhood between Azerbaijan and Turkey, but also professional cooperation between state institutions’, Fidan said in a press briefing.

Before the Antalya forum, Aliyev spoke about Azerbaijan–Syria relations during his speech at the international forum ‘Facing a New World Order’ held at ADA University as reported by APA.

Aliyev stressed that the reason for the deterioration of relations between the two countries wass that the previous administration of Syria, ‘unfortunately, took a pro-Armenian, anti-Azerbaijani position,’ and that there were many contacts between Armenian and Syrian officials.

‘Now, perhaps, the Armenian government thinks that no one remembers this, but no, we remember this. Now we see that they, Armenia, are trying to provide humanitarian aid to Syria. This once again shows Armenia’s hypocrisy. We hope that the Syrian government will no longer give place to such hypocritical people’, Aliyev said.

Aliyev hinted that in July 2012, Armenian authorities allowed Armenian refugees from Syria to settle in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Baku was against.

Azerbaijan and Syria first established diplomatic bilateral relations in 1992, but it was not until May 2008 that Azerbaijan opened an embassy in Damascus. Now exiled former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Baku for the first time in July 2009. The following year, al-Assad signed a significant gas agreement, according to which Azerbaijan was to supply Syria with 1.5 billion m3 of gas every year.

The last Azerbaijani ambassador to Syria, Mahir Aliyev, and embassy staff left Syria in 2012, taking into account the current situation and security factors. At the time, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stated that it ‘hope[s] that the situation in the country will stabilize soon and the embassy in Syria will be able to resume its work as usual’.

The Azerbaijan embassy in Syria resumed operations only in March 2025 after a 13-year closure.