Bryza pointed out that President Erdogan’s visit to Fuzuli in Azerbaijan today is important, because it is symbolic, strategic and practical as well.

“Symbolically, the visit of Azerbaijan’s closest ally’s leader to Fuzuli shows and underscores this powerful victory of Azerbaijan in last year’s 44-day war, which is the greatest military victory in Azerbaijan’s history and the greatest diplomatic victory. Because now Azerbaijan has enforced 4 UN Security Council’s resolutions, that were never enforced and brought Armenia back into compliance with the international law, no matter how much Armenia would have resisted that," he said.

The former ambassador noted that the visit of President Erdogan to Fuzuli is a sign to the world that Azerbaijan has changed, is reunified, its territorial integrity is restored and Azerbaijan is ready now to build a transportation hub in Fuzuli to help the entire region of the South Caucasus reintegrate.

He went on to add that from a strategic perspective, President Erdogan’s visit is also a sign of how close Turkey-Azerbaijan relations have become.

“Azerbaijan-Turkey relations of course have been close for decades. There is an old slogan of “One nation and two states”," Bryza reminded.

Strategically, the visit is a sign that Azerbaijan and Turkey are advancing their cooperation in many spheres, not just military, technological, but also economic, trade and investment, he said.

“Finally, as a practical matter, President Erdogan’s visit is important, because it shows that this international airport in Fuzuli can be used to attract friends, business people, investors, political leaders to these lands of Azerbaijan and in that way make it smoother for investments take place, investments hopefully in organized industrial zones stretching from the Caspian Sea all the way to the Black Sea and Mediterranean. Fuzuli airport is located in an important place strategically on the map and I hope we’ll see that to be used in a pragmatic way to attract the investments needed to restore prosperity and establish long term stability,” he concluded.