Fidan to represent Erdoğan at CICA summit in Baku amid headscarf row

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will represent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at Thursday’s summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku, as a dispute over headscarves strains ties between Ankara and Baku.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will attend the seventh meeting of the Council of Heads of State and Government of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku on Thursday, Oct. 15, on behalf of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The summit, hosted by Azerbaijan as the current CICA chair, will meet under the theme "A Stronger CICA in Asia: Connectivity, Digitalization and Sustainable Development." Leaders are expected to adopt a "Baku Declaration" and announce Laos as a new member. CICA Secretary General Kairat Sarybay has said the platform represents 28 states.

Gaza and the Middle Corridor on the agenda

The Flame Towers and the waterfront in Baku

According to Turkish Foreign Ministry sources, Fidan will use his address to set out Türkiye’s position on Israel’s attacks in Gaza and its policies in the region, and to reiterate support for a two-state solution and calls for greater international pressure.

He is also expected to highlight the contribution of the Middle Corridor and the Development Road projects backed by Türkiye to regional stability and prosperity, call for closer cooperation in trade, energy and digital transformation, point to Türkiye’s hosting of the COP31 climate conference, and hold bilateral talks with counterparts on the sidelines.

Headscarf dispute in the background

The visit comes as reports that students and teachers wearing headscarves were turned away from schools in Azerbaijan under a school dress code have sparked a war of words between Ankara and Baku. Oktay Saral, a chief adviser to Erdoğan, said on Oct. 13 that blocking headscarf-wearing students from education was unacceptable, and several lawmakers from the ruling AK Party urged Baku to lift the practice.

Azerbaijan’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) responded the same day, accusing some political and media circles in Türkiye of running a smear campaign and stressing that Azerbaijan, like Türkiye, has a secular constitutional order. There has been no official word on whether the issue will come up in Fidan’s meetings in Baku.

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