The Impact of Common History and Identity on Azerbaijan-Türkiye Relations and an Assessment of the Safavid Phenomeno

Each region in the Turkic world has its own unique place and value. Evaluating and presenting these values individually is crucial for the future of the Turkic world. Azerbaijan’s proximity to the mainland regions of the Caucasus, Iran, Anatolia, Eastern Europe, the Caspian Sea, and Inner Asia serves as a bridge. While Azerbaijan-Türkiye relations possess the potential to develop under constructive influences such as a shared history and identity, they also bear the challenges of certain regional and historical legacies. Chief among these challenges are the devastating Ottoman-Safavid wars and sectarian differences. Azerbaijan and Türkiye, on the basis of common enlightenment and modernization, have created an intellectual and political accumulation to overcome these difficulties in the 19th century and beyond. It seems possible for relations between the two countries to achieve lasting progress on the basis of peace, stability, cooperation, reciprocity, brotherhood, prosperity, and development, but only by taking into account both the opportunities and challenges. Azerbaijani Turks, along with the Turks of Türkiye, are noteworthy for being one of the two fundamental components of the Western Turkic community. To demonstrate Azerbaijan’s importance, it is necessary to reassess certain historical events and phenomena within the Turkic world, which has quietly emerged since 1991. This structure can only complete its unity with Azerbaijan, and only through Azerbaijan can it integrate with the greater Turkic world. Azerbaijan, like Türkiye and Kazakhstan, is a state founded on the Turkic enlightenment in terms of its founding values.

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