Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was in Baku on Thursday where he had talks with both Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, on the sidelines of a foreign ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).
Last week, Baku removed Turkish flags from a monument to 1,130 Turkish soldiers who died while fighting for Azerbaijan's independence in 1918. The move was followed earlier this week with the removal of the flag in front of the Religious Affairs Consultancy Office, affiliated with the Turkish Embassy, as well as the flags in front of Turkish schools. Azerbaijani officials cited a law on foreign flags for their removal.
“We also have a law on flags, but Azerbaijan is an exception to our flag law. We don't consider the Azerbaijani flag a foreign flag,” Davutoğlu was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency while speaking to reporters in Baku, noting that he discussed the issue with Mammadyarov.
“We spoke amiably and frankly to remove these misunderstandings. The Azerbaijani flag is the same as a Turkish flag for us,” he said.
Tensions escalated when Turkish authorities, upon the request of world soccer's governing body FIFA, banned Azerbaijani flags at a World Cup qualifying match between the Turkish and Armenian national teams earlier this month. The Azerbaijani decision to remove Turkish flags apparently came in response to the ban on Azerbaijani flags during the soccer game.
The image of an Azerbaijani flag thrown in a garbage can was annoying for him, Davutoğlu said, adding: “We're having this incident investigated. In any place in Turkey, there is no writing ‘WC' on garbage cans. Somebody must have written it and taken the picture of this garbage can; this is provocation -- a provocation which aims at sowing seeds of discord between us and our [Azerbaijani] brothers.”
Mammadyarov said: “As far as the crisis over the flag is concerned, Mr. Davutoğlu has told us that Turkey is investigating the incident and that those who are guilty will be punished. We agreed to resolve any problems jointly.”
Later, Davutoğlu and Mammadyarov visited both the Turkish cemetery and the Azeri cemetery where soldiers who died for Azerbaijan's independence in 1918 are buried.
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