Erdoğan arrives in Baku, meets Azerbaijani counterpart Aliyev in first foreign visit after re-election

As a state tradition, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Azerbaijan's capital Baku on Tuesday in his first official visit outside Turkey after his re-election.

Erdoğan first visited the Fahri Hıyaban State Cemetery and paid respects at the graves of Azerbaijan's late founding President Heydar Aliyev and his wife Zarife Aliyev.

He then visited the Baku Martyrs' Cemetery and Eternal Fire Monument, a complex housing the victims of the Black January massacre, in which more than 150 pro-independence protesters were killed in a violent crackdown by Soviet forces on Jan. 20, 1990.

Erdoğan's next stop was the Baku Turkish Martyrs' Cemetery, which contains the graves of 1,130 Ottoman/Turkish soldiers killed during the campaign to remove Russian troops from Azerbaijan in late 1918.

Later on, Erdoğan was welcomed by his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev at the Presidential Palace in Baku, where the two leaders were scheduled to hold a meeting.

After their bilateral meeting, delegations from the two countries were to hold a meeting chaired by Erdoğan and Aliyev.