Turkish president arrives in Azerbaijan's Nakhichevan exclave

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan on Monday to meet his counterpart Ilham Aliyev, according to footage carried on Turkish television.

The meeting in the territory between Armenia and Iran on the border with Turkey comes just days after Azerbaijan seized the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has a majority ethnic Armenian population.

The visit was officially designed to launch the construction of a gas pipeline but the two presidents were also due to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh and the opening up to Azerbaijanis of Armenia’s Zangezur corridor, Turkish media reported.

Annexing the Zangezur corridor along the border with Iran would enable Azerbaijan to establish territorial continuity all the way to Nakhichevan and beyond to Turkey.

Erdogan’s visit following the Nagorno-Karabakh offensive contrasts sharply with Russia’s apparent withdrawal from the region.