ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the key determinants of very close and special relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well as the factors that have been challenging and modifying it. During the last years of the Soviet Union, for the secular nationalist elite of the liberation movement of Azerbaijan, Turkey provided the optimal alternative model in the immediate neighborhood to the past and current socialism. The chapter focuses on the developments around Nagorno-Karabakh and the role it played in structuring relations over the last two decades. It explains the three outstanding factors shaping relations between the countries: the AKP and the larger post-modernist trend in Turkey, de-romanticisation, and the West. The chapter discusses the misperceptions and stereotypes in Turkey and Azerbaijan, while the penultimate part measures the pros and cons of the relations for each country. From the beginning, one of the problems between the two communities has been about balancing ideas with actions, pragmatism with idealism, and romance with reality.
