Erdoğan cancels EPC Summit visit in Spain due to illness

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan cancelled his visit to Spain and Justice and Development Party (AKP) parliamentary group meeting due to his illness.

It was stated on October 4th that the President’s visits and AKP speech cancelled due to Erdoğan’s “cold-like symptoms”.

Erdoğan will not attend the European Political Community (EPC) Summit to be held in Spain’s Granada on October 5-6.

The President had a phone call with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez who invited Erdoğan to Spain.

Erdogan was to leave for Spain tomorrow for the visit where relations between the two countries and regional developments would be discussed.

Aliyev cancelled the five-way meeting

The international focus of the summit was on the latest developments in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was scheduled to be in Granada for the summit as he was expected to attend a five-way meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Council President Charles Michel, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

However, Azerbaijan’s state news agency APA announced that Aliyev had decided not to attend the EU-brokered event in Spain.

According to the APA report, Aliyev requested Turkey to be present at the meeting however France and Germany objected to it.

It quoted that Baku regarded the meeting to be dominated by “anti-Azerbaijani atmosphere,” without Turkish presence.

APA said that Azerbaijan would not attend any future talks which included France.

Paris recently decided to provide military equipment to Yerevan.

However Baku remains potentially open to possible three-way meetings with the EU and Armenia, the agency stated.

On October 3, the Armenian parliament voted to ratify the Rome Statute, a founding element of the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.