BAKU - President Haydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan received on Wednesday Health Minister Recep Akdag who is currently paying an official visit to Baku.
Speaking at the meeting, Aliyev expressed his pleasure with Akdag's visit to Azerbaijan, and stated that there were very good relations between the Turkish and Azerbaijani health ministries.
He noted, ''Turkish doctors are considered trustworthy people in Azerbaijan because their President went to Gulhane Hospital in Ankara for two times.''
Recalling that he had talked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the phone the day before, Aliyev said that Erdogan was closely interested in Azerbaijan, and they had given information about the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline to each other.
Stressing that their telephone conversation proved that relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan were at highest level, Aliyev noted that Turkey and Azerbaijan would remain as two sister countries.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Akdag said that Turkey and Azerbaijan were 'one nation, two states', adding that he had this opinion before he became politician.
Noting that they wanted to develop bilateral relations in every field, Akdag said that they also wanted to form a joint working group in field of medicine.
Stressing that they were willing to do their best for refugees, Akdag said that a large-scale medical control including tuberculosis tests had been made in a part of refugee camps in Azerbaijan, adding that Azerbaijani Health Minister Ali Insanov and he would visit refugee camps on Thursday.
(MS-AÖ) 11.06.2003