Erdogan's Adviser Dismissed After Criticizing Hijab Ban in Azerbaijan

Turkish presidential adviser Octay Saral acknowledged his removal from office amid an escalating Turkish-Azerbaijani diplomatic crisis triggered by his statements criticizing hijab restrictions in Azerbaijani schools.

When asked about his dismissal by journalist Talat Atilla, Saral said: "We are not equals. The president appointed me," and added that he left his position on the president's instructions, and that he harbors no resentment toward anyone. When asked if his dismissal was linked to his statements about Azerbaijan, he replied: "Yes, it appears so."

Middle East Eye revealed in a report published on October 20 by Ragıp Soylu that Baku's administration formally requested that Ankara dismiss Saral following his statements. Journalist Fuad Uğur, close to the authorities, commented on the matter via the X platform saying: "Octay Saral has been dismissed from his position," and noted that he is one of the president's advisers whom they hold in high regard, and expressed deep sadness over it. For his part, Saral has yet to issue any statement.

The ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), led by President Ilham Aliyev, issued a statement on October 13 in response to Saral's statements and those of several deputies from the Justice and Development Party, in which it said that "the intensification of the media campaign against Azerbaijan and its acquisition of a more aggressive, systematic and slanderous character" necessitates expressing the position frankly, especially given the significant involvement of advisers to the Turkish president and deputies from the ruling Justice and Development Party in this campaign.

On October 20, Azerbaijan opened detention warrants against seven Turkish citizens on charges of "calling for the forcible change of the constitutional system" and "inciting religious hatred," and then classified 31 Turkish citizens, including New Welfare Party leader Fatih Erbakan, as undesirable persons on October 21.

The dismissal came ahead of the scheduled summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Ankara on October 30, and following a phone call on October 21 between President Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, in which he invited him to attend the summit according to a statement from the Presidential Communications Directorate.

It is worth noting that the Azerbaijani regulation issued on October 13 bans "clothing items that disrupt school uniform consistency and contradict the principle of secularism" without explicitly mentioning the hijab or any specific religious garment, yet a number of media outlets and religious figures interpreted this as a ban on the hijab in schools, and the controversy quickly extended to include Turkey and Iran.