Aliyev's party rebukes Erdogan's AKP as school headscarf row strains ties

Azerbaijan's ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) has told Türkiye's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) to stay out of its domestic affairs, turning a dispute over school dress rules into an exchange between the ruling parties of two countries that describe themselves as one nation.

The public sparring has not reached the level of state-to-state relations. On Oct. 18, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a post on X to mark Azerbaijan's Restoration of Independence Day, which reaches its 35th anniversary this year. "On behalf of my country and my people, I cordially congratulate friendly and brotherly Azerbaijan," Erdogan wrote, calling it a country "with whom we always stand together in both joy and sorrow," Report.az reported.

From school gates to party statements

The row traces back to Sept. 21, when Azerbaijan's Cabinet of Ministers revised clothing rules for state schools. The regulation bars dress that breaches uniform rules or conflicts with secularism and does not mention headscarves, Diken reported, citing the BBC. Medyascope reported that students and teachers wearing headscarves were nonetheless kept out of schools, that protests followed with 37 people detained, and that rules on teachers' dress were adopted on Oct. 6. As Eurasian Post reported earlier this month, the new rules drew a protest in Istanbul and a rebuff from President Ilham Aliyev, who addressed the issue in an Oct. 2 speech to his party's congress.

Ankara's reaction sharpened on Oct. 12, when Oktay Saral, Erdogan's chief adviser, wrote on X: "Blocking the right to education of headscarf-wearing students in Azerbaijan is unacceptable!" He added, "The headscarf is not an obstacle; it is a requirement of faith!" Diken reported. The quotes are translated from Turkish. AKP lawmakers made similar statements, according to YAP's response.

YAP answered on Oct. 13. "Azerbaijan is a secular state," the party said, adding that "such statements run counter to the spirit of Azerbaijan-Türkiye brotherly relations," Diken reported. "We call on the ruling AKP to refrain from this harmful policy," the statement said, according to Medyascope. YAP invoked the "one nation, two states" formula it attributed to former President Heydar Aliyev, pushed back on claims about Baku's relations with Israel and restated its support for a two-state solution to the Palestinian question.

Ankara's partners and rivals weigh in

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the AKP's partner in the People's Alliance, took a different line on Oct. 14, calling for respect for Azerbaijan's sovereignty and its domestic legal order, Medyascope reported. From the opposition, Saadet Party Chairman Mahmut Arikan published an open letter to Aliyev on Oct. 12, Milli Gazete reported. Arikan noted that many mothers, wives and children of Karabakh war heroes wear headscarves and recalled Türkiye's own Feb. 28 period, when headscarf-wearing students lost access to education. "As Türkiye, we know this pain very well," he wrote. "I hope these wrong practices will be abandoned as soon as possible."

Medyascope also linked the strain to Azerbaijan's energy and defense cooperation with Israel. It cited Kpler data showing that Israel's 2025 imports of Azerbaijani oil shipped via Ceyhan rose 31% to about 94,000 barrels a day. Aliyev met Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Oct. 14. Diplomatic traffic has continued: Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan was in Baku on Oct. 15 for a summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), and Aliyev and Erdogan are expected to meet in Ankara on Oct. 30 at a summit of the Organization of Turkic States. Medyascope said there was no sign of a fundamental change in official relations.

What it means: The dispute is being fought between parties and advisers rather than between governments, and that distinction matters. Baku has chosen to target the AKP by name while leaving Erdogan's office untouched, and Erdogan's own message kept to the familiar language of brotherhood. Within Türkiye, the split is telling: the AKP's coalition partner sided with Baku's sovereignty argument, while an Islamist-rooted opposition party pressed the religious-freedom case. The Oct. 30 meeting in Ankara will show whether the leaders contain the row or let it shade a partnership built on energy routes, defense ties and the corridor politics of the South Caucasus.