Opening ceremony of “Azerbaijan” quarter held in Turkish city of Kahramanmaraş
The opening ceremony of the “Azerbaijan” quarter was held on June 19 in the city of Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye.
Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Türkiye, attended the event.
The national anthems of Azerbaijan and Türkiye were played at the ceremony.
This was followed by the screening of a video dedicated to the “Azerbaijan” quarter.
The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan addressed the event.
Speech by President Ilham Aliyev
- My dear brother, esteemed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
Distinguished participants of the event, dear people of Kahramanmaraş,
First of all, I convey to you the most sincere greetings of the Azerbaijani people. I once again ask Allah to rest the souls of all our brothers and sisters who lost their lives in the aftermath of the terrible earthquake on February 6, 2023, in peace.
The Azerbaijani people treated this tragedy as their own. From the very first day, tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis began to fulfill their fraternal duty by coming to the stations in Baku and various cities across Azerbaijan to provide humanitarian aid. Immediately after the earthquake, search and rescue operations began under the leadership of my dear brother, the esteemed President, followed by reconstruction and construction work. Tens of thousands of people were provided with new apartments in a short period of time. This factor once again demonstrates Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's commitment, love and strong determination toward his people. At the same time, this is also evidence of a strong Türkiye, because only a strong state can carry out such a large-scale reconstruction and construction work in a short time.
Azerbaijan immediately sent more than a thousand personnel, including search and rescue people, volunteers and doctors to the earthquake-affected regions of Türkiye, and they started working immediately. Fifty-three people were rescued from the rubble by Azerbaijani personnel, 3,200 people were provided with medical assistance by Azerbaijani doctors in two field hospitals we had established.
Azerbaijan has always been by Türkiye’s side and Türkiye has always been by Azerbaijan's side. Today, my participation along with my dear brother in the opening of the “Azerbaijan” quarter is further evidence of our unity and friendship.
As you have just mentioned, we stood shoulder to shoulder with my dear brother, esteemed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the Karabakh issue from the first day of the war. The support, solidarity, political and moral backing shown to us by the President of Türkiye from the first hours of the war and the fact that the Turkish people were together with us gave us additional strength. We have restored historical justice, and today the Azerbaijani people live in comfort and security on their ancestral land.
The establishment of the “Azerbaijan” quarter is also a remarkable event. More than 90 buildings have been constructed here. Our Turkish brothers and sisters will live in 1,200 apartments. There is a school and a kindergarten, and the construction of a culture center is also on the agenda. We are always by each other’s side in good times and difficult times. We multiply each other’s strength. Today, the Türkiye-Azerbaijan brotherhood and unity are an important factor not only for our region, but also on a global scale, they are a symbol of security, cooperation, development and brotherhood.
The Shusha Declaration, which we signed together with the esteemed President in Shusha four years ago has raised our relations to the highest level. The Shusha Declaration has officially elevated our relations to the level of an alliance. We are friends, brothers and allies. Türkiye and Azerbaijan, two brotherly countries, are confidently and successfully moving forward hand in hand in political, economic, energy, transport, military and all other fields.
Today, I am visiting this beautiful land for the first time. I have been to many other places in Türkiye and have seen the beautiful nature of this wonderful country. I am very pleased to be here, in the ancient Turkish land of Kahramanmaraş. The people of Kahramanmaraş showed great resolve in the face of a terrible earthquake. They did not break or bend. They knew and believed that behind them stood a strong leader – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Behind them stands a strong Türkiye. This, of course, once again shows how attached the people of Kahramanmaraş are to their native land, leader and state.
I express the respect and love of the Azerbaijani people to all the people living in the earthquake-affected areas. You know and should know that you have 10 million brothers and sisters in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanis also know that we have more than 80 million brothers and sisters in Türkiye.
Long live Türkiye! Long live Türkiye-Azerbaijan unity and brotherhood!
x x x
The President of the Republic of Türkiye then delivered a speech.
Speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- My dear brother, President Ilham Aliyev,
Distinguished guests, dear people of Kahramanmaraş,
My esteemed brothers in our other provinces,
I greet you with the most sincere feelings, affection, and love.
Through you, I send my greetings and respect to all of Maraş with its neighborhoods, districts, and homes from here. In the same way, I respectfully greet our citizens who are currently following us via live broadcast from Maraş. I sincerely greet our ten million brothers and sisters in dear Azerbaijan, who contributed to the “Azerbaijan” quarter we are opening today in the person of my esteemed friend and brother, President Ilham Aliyev.
Before you, I say “You are welcome!” to my brother Ilham and his esteemed delegation, to Türkiye, their second home. We are pleased to welcome you to Maraş on the occasion of such a meaningful and significant ceremony for us.
Yes, today we are once again witnessing the realization of the slogan “One Nation in Two States” because we are the children of one nation in two states, praying under the shadow of the same flag, shedding tears on the same prayer mat, giving our sacrifices for the same independence, and having one heart. “Can our hearts and souls be separate, Türkiye from Azerbaijan?” Today we are showing the whole world again what our brotherhood means, echoing the words of our poets. May Allah make this unshakable solidarity and this love between us permanent.
I would like to thank my brother Ilham and his delegation on behalf of the people of Kahramanmaraş. First of all, I would like to emphasize this: One of the most visible examples of the unity of fate between Türkiye and Azerbaijan is the apartments we have just inaugurated. You know, on February 6, 2023, we experienced one of the greatest natural disasters in our history. We have had many sad memories from the past to this day. However, the disaster and destruction we saw in our 11 provinces that day was different from all others. We lost 53,735 lives, 12,796 of them in Maraş. May Allah not let us experience such a tragedy again. Taking this opportunity, I once again pray for Allah’s mercy for our brothers and sisters who lost their lives in the earthquake, and ask Allah to grant patience to other brothers and sisters.
Thankfully, we did not lose faith at the moment the earthquake struck. We did not despair for a single day in the face of the test we had to experience. We gave our hearts and souls to our nation and quickly gathered ourselves.
Of course, dear brothers, one of the first to come to the aid of our country in this difficult period was our dear Azerbaijan. We can never forget and will not forget the solidarity of the Azerbaijani people, who, upon receiving news of the disaster, began to help our nation by saying “I am with you, my Türkiye!”, who tried to help our nation by putting everything they had on the roof of their cars, who shared in our grief with their prayers, support, and sincere tears. In particular, the great contribution made by our brother Ilham Aliyev and his esteemed wife Mehriban Aliyeva to our relief mobilization will always have a special place in our hearts.
Our “Azerbaijan” quarter is one of our most prestigious projects, a source of our pride. This quarter, which was destroyed as a result of the earthquake, is now being revived with the support of Azerbaijan. This project, which my brother Ilham is constantly supervising, will be a safe and prosperous home for our brothers who will settle here, a project that those who see it will envy and admire, Inshallah. Not only because of its houses, but also because of its parks, gardens, culture center, and Heydar Aliyev secondary school. This place is being revived as a residential area worthy of the leading cities of Türkiye’s centenary. Currently, the construction of a total of 2,778 apartments, shops, and offices is powering ahead here. We have already completed almost half of our projects today. Inshallah, we will complete the remaining work by the end of the year and hand them over to their new owners.
I would like to say with great satisfaction here that this fraternal hand, which has helped us under the leadership of Mr. Ilham Aliyev, has stamped its seal of fraternity on the hearts of the people of Maraş. In every step taken here, in every nail driven, whether in Anatolia or in Azerbaijan, there is the hard work, the sincerity, and the prayer of a Turk. May Allah be pleased with them. I express my gratitude to every brother who has contributed to this, from workers to engineers, to all our Azerbaijani brothers. I would like to extend my congratulations to the Azerbaijan State Housing Construction Agency and the leadership of our Housing Development Administration on my own behalf and on behalf of our entire nation. I do hope that the residents of this quarter will live happily in their new homes with prosperity, health, and happiness.
Dear residents of Maraş, very distinguished guests. With projects like these, we are creating new conditions that will give hope and confidence in our future to our cities destroyed in the Disaster of the Century. Along with housing projects, we are building new residential areas with social security areas and infrastructure projects. We are reviving historical sites in accordance with their original appearance. In Kahramanmaraş, we are repairing our registered cultural monuments in the Closed Bazaar, and we are building workplaces in the historical Blacksmiths' Bazaar. In Adiyaman, we are reviving our historical city square; in Malatya the Şire Bazaar, the Kuyumcular, Yüzüncü Yıl, and Bakircilar bazaars; in Hatay the Uzun Bazaar, our Habib-i Neccar Mosque, and the centuries-old Kemal Paşa and Kurtuluş avenues in accordance with their historical appearance.
Whatever the conditions in the world and in our region, our priority is clear. As a government, we are concerned with healing the wounds caused by the Disaster of the Century in our cities as soon as we possibly can. We have never disappointed our nation during any period of our governance. We will keep the promises we made in the election squares, Inshallah, here too.
Inshallah, with this understanding, we have turned the earthquake region into a giant construction site. Believe me, no country can recover from such a major natural disaster so quickly. From the first day of the disaster until now, we have built an area almost the size of a European country. Hundreds of thousands of architects, engineers, and workers worked day and night on the construction sites set up in our eleven provinces. The number of houses we have handed over in the Construction of the Century activities is increasing every passing day. You see, while the opposition is completely busy with their internal disputes, we are handing over the infrastructure and apartments that we have completed with high quality to their owners. We increased the number of apartments, country houses, and workplaces we have put into operation to 100,000 in September, 130,000 in October, 155,000 in November, and 201,000 in January. Today, we are bringing this figure to 250,000.
In the lottery that we will hold with a live video link in a moment, we will hand over a total of 49,056 apartments and shops to their owners, including 21,114 apartments and 1,125 workplaces in our Hatay, 8,064 apartments and 1,097 workplaces in our Malatya, 3,554 apartments and 1,723 workplaces in our Adiyaman, 675 apartments in our Gaziantep, 2,636 apartments in our Diyarbakir, 490 apartments in our Adana, 1,263 apartments in our Şanlıurfa, 1,429 apartments in our Elazig, 1,336 apartments in our Osmaniye, 105 apartments in our Kilis, 85 apartments in our Sivas, 49 apartments in our Kayseri, 3,567 apartments and 744 workplaces in our Kahramanmaraş. Our goal is to complete the construction of 453,000 apartments and facilities by the end of 2025. So far, we have invested more than 2 trillion liras in our earthquake-affected region. We have allocated 584 billion liras in our 2025 budget so that the disaster of the century can be completely eliminated. We aim to rebuild all our cities by the end of the year and not leave a single unfinished story behind. Even if the opposition does not understand, the process we are experiencing is equivalent to a national struggle. We are fighting this struggle with the grace of Allah.
What did they say? The government cannot rise from this destruction. Despite these envious people, we are working with determination, patience, and resolve. I always say that everyone's sea is as long as their horizon. The horizon of those who throw big and small in every election period, and now cannot even remember the path of the earthquake zone stretches only as far as their noses. When their work is done, unfortunately, the nation does not even come to their mind. They cannot even raise their heads from the struggle for a chair and income. They are truly in a pitiful state.
My brothers, our compass has never been the opposition. We are still only looking at our work, as we have been for 23 years. They will spread despair, and we will be the hope, companion, and friend of fate for our brothers who were affected by the earthquake. They will say, “You won't be able to do it,” and we will all revive our cities stronger together. They will be the obstacle, and we will either find a way or open a way to overcome the obstacle. While they are arguing, fighting, and spending their days doing useless things, we will serve all of Türkiye with love together with Kahramanmaraş. As eighty-six million, we will all step forward to a strong tomorrow together.
We have many reasons to be hopeful. Look, the best example of this is Kahramanmaraş’s Istiklalspor. This sports club, which was competing in the amateur league before February 6, lost 14 of its athletes in the earthquake. Our club, which was promoted to the third league by the Football Federation, had a one-year break in its activities. Last year, it was promoted to the second league in football and the first league in basketball. I congratulate them and wish them continued success. I know very well that there are similar examples of success in our other provinces affected by the earthquake.
My brothers, I would like to say goodbye to you with the emotional verses dedicated to Karabakh by the late Abdurrahim Karakoç, a son of Kahramanmaraş, written immediately after the Khojaly massacre:
Azeri girl crying for her luck,
You say Karabakh, I say Garayazi.
The voice of the Turk trembles in the void,
Don't think that the least of your troubles is with us,
Your wound is ours too.
You say “Come, brother,” there is no future path,
There are no flowers to put on the graves of martyrs.
There is no hour without suffering, no year without fighting.
The bullets are with you, the pain is with us,
Your wound is ours too.
This game comes but doesn’t go like this,
This game does not change the oppressors,
This game does not end as they hope.
The bread and salt of the oppressed are with us.
Your wound is ours too.
Yes, our late poet said thirty years ago, “This game comes but doesn’t go like this.” The Almighty, the Commander-in-Chief, Ilham Aliyev, showed us that Karabakh has regained its freedom after thirty years of occupation and oppression. Three weeks ago, we were in Lachin on the occasion of May 28 – Independence Day. After Fuzuli and Zangilan, we also put Lachin International Airport into operation together with my brother Ilham Aliyev. After liberation from occupation, development and restoration work is continuing rapidly in all parts of Karabakh. With the achievement of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Inshallah, this work will accelerate even more.
May Allah make our unity and vitality with Azerbaijan permanent! With these thoughts, I once again sincerely congratulate our dear Azerbaijan on June 15 – National Salvation Day. I once again remember with mercy and respect the lives we lost as a result of the earthquake and, in the person of my brother Ilham Aliyev, I express my most sincere gratitude to the people of Azerbaijan for their solidarity, support, and prayers.
I do hope that our new apartments and workplaces, which we will cast lots for, will be auspicious again, and I congratulate our Ministry of Environment, the Housing Development Administration, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, our benefactors, and all my brothers who have contributed to the construction of the apartments.
I greet you all again with respect and love, and I entrust you to Allah. Thank you, be well, stay safe!
x x x
Later, Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan laid the foundation stone for the cultural center to be built in the “Azerbaijan” quarter in an online format.
Keys to new apartments were handed over to several families affected by the earthquake.
President Ilham Aliyev and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan cut the symbolic ribbon marking the opening of the “Azerbaijan” quarter.
Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan toured the “Azerbaijan” quarter and viewed the newly constructed apartments there.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the Heydar Aliyev primary school and kindergarten built in the “Azerbaijan” quarter in Kahramanmaraş to familiarize themselves with the facilities created there.
The children welcomed the heads of state of Azerbaijan and Türkiye with great joy.
Following that, the presidents listened to a performance of the song “The Black Sea Raged” by the school’s teachers and students.
President Ilham Aliyev and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented report cards to students graduating from the 4th grade. The heads of state also gifted the students school bags.
The modern three-story building of the school and kindergarten includes 20 primary school classrooms and 3 kindergarten rooms. Additional rooms have also been allocated for children to support their education.
The building features subject classrooms equipped with essential teaching materials, as well as rooms for music, art, and labor education. Workshops have been established to help students develop skills in technology, mathematics, and engineering.
x x x
Immediately after the devastating earthquake in southeastern Türkiye in February 2023, the Azerbaijani state and people stood by the brotherly country.
From the first days of the disaster, under the directive of President Ilham Aliyev, all available resources were mobilized to assist the brotherly country. In addition to participating in search and rescue operations, efforts of both government institutions and non-governmental organizations of the country were directed to other areas of assistance.
Based on another important directive of the head of state, the construction of the “Azerbaijan” quarter in Kahramanmaraş was launched to provide long-term support to the brotherly country.
The construction works were carried out by Azerbaijan’s State Housing Development Agency. The quarter, covering an area of 27.6 hectares, includes 68 residential buildings with 1,194 apartments, the Heydar Aliyev primary school, kindergarten, cultural center, and other social facilities. Additionally, 1,595 commercial units will be created for families to settle there.
On September 11, 2024, the Heydar Aliyev primary school and kindergarten were officially opened.
According to the master plan of the “Azerbaijan” quarter, construction of blocks 7, 8, 11, and 12 has already been completed. These 4 blocks include 26 residential buildings. All buildings are four stories high. A total of 456 apartments and 328 non-residential units have been built in these buildings.
