Theme: Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will not attend Friday's Organization of Turkic States (OTS) summit in Ankara, despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's personal invitation in an October 21 phone call, according to Azerbaijani media cited by Turkish Minute. The absence follows the departure of Erdogan's chief presidential adviser, Oktay Saral, amid a dispute over Azerbaijan's restrictions on headscarves in schools, Turkish Minute reported.

Turkey is hosting a summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Ankara on Thursday and Friday under the theme “Turkic Century: Unity in Language, Thought and Deed,” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as host, according to TRT World. The heads of state are expected to adopt the Ankara Declaration along with decisions and documents aimed at deepening cooperation and strengthening the bloc's institutional framework.

Azerbaijan has barred 31 Turkish citizens from entering the country over social media remarks that authorities allege threatened the country’s national security and advocated the forcible overthrow of the government in Baku, according to the Middle East Eye. The decision deepens the dispute that began last month, when Azerbaijan banned headscarves in primary and high schools. The move sparked protests in Turkey and turned into a diplomatic crisis, according to the outlet.

In Azerbaijan, girls wearing headscarves have been turned away from schools, triggering unusual protests involving children, according to DW. On October 12, the Interior Ministry said 37 people had been detained in connection with the protests. Students and teachers say they were turned away, and a primary school teacher was dismissed for refusing to remove her headscarf, according to a relative’s account.

Railway officials from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan signed on October 11, in Tashkent, a protocol to enhance the cost competitiveness of the CASCA+ corridor, according to Eurasianet, in a text republished by OilPrice. The protocol also calls on the participating states to simplify tariff regimes and improve customs clearance procedures.

Representatives from Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority walked out of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s speech on Thursday at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog traveled to Azerbaijan on Wednesday for the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), where he met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani in Baku. Herzog and Aliyev discussed ways to deepen the strategic relationship between the two countries, the President’s Office confirmed. Herzog’s meeting with al-Zayani focused on the necessity of strengthening the Abraham Accords and expanding peace and cooperation.

Construction of the TRIPP corridor has yet to start, leaving the broader Middle Corridor project incomplete, according to Eurasianet, in a text published by OilPrice. The approximately 40-kilometer route would be the shortest segment of the Middle Corridor and, according to the text, would offer Armenia and Azerbaijan an opportunity to strengthen their integration into the corridor, which connects Central Asia with Europe via the Caspian Sea, the South Caucasus and Turkey.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that trade between Russia and the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) exceeded 110 billion dollars in 2025 and grew 19% in the first half, according to Sputnik. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Russian and Azerbaijani counterparts in Turkmenistan on the sidelines of a CIS meeting, according to Mehr News.

Eleven crew members, nationals of Azerbaijan and India, have been rescued after an attack on a vessel carrying corn in the Black Sea, according to the BBC. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the “horrific” Russian attack on the ship, also according to the BBC. Romania's interior ministry said the ship sank about 30 nautical miles south of its port of Sfantu Gheorghe.